Review of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point was fascinating; and his Blink I understood in an instant. His most recent bestseller, Outliers, The Story of Success, is, well, troubling, as truth oft is.

Gladwell takes on a journey across two centuries and around the planet and shows us what goes into true success. What advantage(s) Bill Gates had, why the townspeople of Rosetto, PA are virtually heart-disease free, and why some airlines have been more prone to plane crashes. He presents case after case, often interwoven. And what is his `case'? His case is that the extraordinarily successful, the `outliers', may not be all that extraordinary at all. Oh, they don't lack talent; and they did (do) a lot of hard work (10,000 hours before the `magic' starts). But there is more involved than the mere individual, and in this the book clashes with the egoic notion of the self-made man (or woman). Around, along with, and preceding every `outlier' are privileges, culture, and (very) unique opportunities. We are not all on a level playing field. Birth date (or year or decade) matters. Cultural heritage matters. Family wealth matters. Being mulatto matters - but not `just' matters - it matters in place and time. It might in one case mean disadvantage - but in another - just the opposite.

Gladwell shows how being born in January puts a potential Canadian hockey player at ever increasing advantage than those born later. (And what does birth date have to do with the self-made success story?) A Jew born in the 1930s and then trying to practice law in New York after passing the bar found himself outside the `club' in terms of being hired into an existing law firm. But it was this very disadvantage that was made advantage by those willing to start their own firms and practice a different kind of law. And so in case after case we see that there are factors far greater reaching than just the person. Chinese math students can be predicted to win math contests based on the thoroughness of the pre-test questionnaire - to the extent that they don't even need to do the actual contest. And, the fact that they are from Southern China where superiority in math derives from centuries centered around the rice paddies means the pre-test is also unnecessary. They are extraordinary at math because they are Southern Chinese. Gulp. And if you were born in December, save your energy trying out for hockey in Canada. Gladwell explains why. But the other side of the coin is this: if there were two hockey leagues, one with a birthday cutoff date in January, and another later in the year, there would be twice as many hockey stars! Some success is earned (by the successful), and some is not. Gladwell concludes ... "The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all."

Outliers, The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, 2008.