Book review: Outliers

I am in a reading period right now and it is interesting to see the common themes in the books I happen to choose. Malcolm Gladwell is the author of two previous best sellers, The Tipping Point and Blink. Formally a business and science magazine writer, Gladwell analyzes research and explains trends in a simple, effective way. His new book is absolutely terrific with stories, statistics and explainations. Gladwell uses research and statistics to point out trends that we often are unaware of.

In this case Gladwell tries to explain that there is, in fact, a reason why people become successful and it doesn’t always have to do with personal perserverance and drive. That helps, of course, but it also helps to be born into the right types of families and the right time of the year or the right year. Bill Gates usually says he was lucky – and Gladwell explains that Gates, though clever, smart and a brilliant entreprenör, also happens to be born (along with other prominent computer experts) in the right year (1955-1956) and provided a unique opportunity to practice computer coding for an unlimited period of time long before most people could. He, and others like him, had the practice time that very few others were able to come by. And just like in the book Talent is Overrated, Gladwell points out the importance of practice, those 10000 hours that so called geniuses have put in that others haven’t. Combine all these factors – right time, year, lots of practice, right family, right place – and the chanses of super success suddenly explode. That is not to discourage others, but just to understand that there is more to success than simply being smart.