Outliers: The Story of Success
You can view this book's Amazon detail page here.
This is the 10,00 hour rule book where Gladwell demonstrates that the difference between successful people and the rest of lowly dwarfs are that successful people have done what they excel at at least 10,000 times or for 10,000 hours. He gives many examples that back up his theory and, of course, it’s something we would all like to believe – I can be the best at something if I just work hard. While I am a great believer in the magic of hard work, I do believe that there are other time and place-related factors that have quite a bit to do with success.
I like Gladwell’s books, but I’m highly suspicious of the use (misuse, actually) of data. Not necessarily by him, but by everyone. It’s not so much that I question his data, but rather, the lack of any other data that one might draw different conclusions with. If you take his conclusions with a grain of salt though and understand that he is summarizing some broad generalities, the stuff he presents is fascinating and a lot of fun. He does a terrific job in the presentation also.
The book also discusses why certain regional and ethnic backgrounds give us a propensity to be better at something than those from different backgrounds or regions. In his very Gladwellian way, he backs these theories up with anecdotes and data. All very interesting and believable. Above all, though, enjoyable.
Fun read.
- Started reading:
- 31st August 2010
- Finished reading:
- 26th March 2011