Book Review: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Story of Success by the Author of Tipping Point and Blink
Dec 12, 2008
Studies in success from business leaders to sports people to prodigies focus on the individual and their talent. For business leaders in particular, that has led to an explosion of styles and characteristics that define successful leaders. Even a cursory examination of the literature will lead one to question whether there is anything that unifies such diversity. The author would argue that indeed there are factors beyond the individual that affect success such as selection.
Success From Selection
Canadian hockey is apparently a meritocracy with individuals working their way to the top through a well organised and competitive set of leagues at each level. The Canadian psychologist Roger Barnsley noted that 40% of the players were born Jan-Feb-Mar, 30% during Apr-May-Jun, 20% between Jul-Aug-Sep and just 10% in Oct-Nov-Dec. A statistical oddity until the connection to the selection cut-off date for each age-class is known – 01 January. Consequently Barnsley argued that “skewed age distributions exist whenever three things happen: selection, streaming, and differentiated experience”.
Similar parallels are then drawn with Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study or TIMSS [math and science tests given every four years to children in many countries]. The conclusion being that success is an accumulative advantage.
Success From Opportunity
The author moves on to explain how extraordinary individuals are often favoured by fortune to have the opportunity to practice their talent with people like Bill Joy, Bill Gates and the Beatles given as exemplars. The finding from researchers is that 10,000 hours of practice has produced a world class expert whether that is a violinist or a computer programmer.
Opportunity can also knock in the form of circumstance with an example of fourteen of the world’s wealthiest people being born within nine years of each other and taking advantage of the momentous changes around 1870.
Success Factors
Similarly, the author goes on to show the influence of parenting and culture and also dispels the common misconception that geniuses or high IQ [Intelligence Quotient] individuals are naturally successful. For example, the work of Lewis Terman, Stanford University, started by trying to prove the connection and only convincingly demonstrated that there is no correlation between intellect and achievement whether measured in terms of Nobel Prizes or financial wealth.
Outliers
Outliers is an interesting book with some useful insights. The author makes a compelling case that there are factors beyond the individual that contribute to their success but perhaps the question that is not really answered is “Why do some people get more out of their opportunities than others?”. Opportunities can be substituted with practice sessions, culture and so on. In summary, an easy to read book with some stimulating stories but it does not effectively answer a key question that is central to the whole question of individual success.
About the Author
Author of the New York Times bestsellers: Tipping Point and Blink. Was a reporter for the Washington Post and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Allen Lane 2008. ISBN: 978-1-846-14121-8
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