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A review by toggle_fow
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
4.0
Very interesting.
Gladwell's claim is that success is as much a measure of 1) luck and 2) social culture as it is of ability.
At first glance, a lot of this seemed to be the "they succeeded because of their attitude" kind of stereotype-based social science that called back to the "protestant work ethic" of Samuel Huntington. As the book went on, though, his examples and analysis were much more convincing than I expected them to be. It does make you feel kind of helpless, since the book is arguing that if you weren't born in the lucky right era or to the right family you're basically out of luck, but it is absolutely intriguing conceptually.
Gladwell's claim is that success is as much a measure of 1) luck and 2) social culture as it is of ability.
At first glance, a lot of this seemed to be the "they succeeded because of their attitude" kind of stereotype-based social science that called back to the "protestant work ethic" of Samuel Huntington. As the book went on, though, his examples and analysis were much more convincing than I expected them to be. It does make you feel kind of helpless, since the book is arguing that if you weren't born in the lucky right era or to the right family you're basically out of luck, but it is absolutely intriguing conceptually.