Outliers

Favourite Quotes

“hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning” - p. 150

“no one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.” - p. 238¹

“Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” - p. 267

Detailed Summary

Introduction: The Roseto Mystery

• Roseto is a town in Pennsylvania
• A doctor noticed that they had almost no deaths from heart disease/attack, something that was common in the US at that time
• after lots of investigation, he realized it was cause of their social system / social lifestyle
• they commonly visited each other, were sociable with one another, 3 generations lived under one roof, grandparents commanded respect, the Church mass had a large role in people’s lives, there were lots of civic organizations, etc
• the crux of the point here is that the doctor had to convince the medical community that health isn’t just based on your genes, or personal lifestyle choices, etc, but it also had to do with the culture you came from, who your family and friends are, etc
  • in other words, the doctor changed our understanding of health. Gladwell, in the same way, wants to change our understanding of success through this book

Part One: Opportunity

Chapter One: The Matthew Effect

• this is the same principle JP talks about all the time from the bible
• in this chapter Gladwell shows how athletics and academics are skewed in the favor of those born earlier in the year. And it’s not just cause those kids have an advantage just cause they are a few or several months older. It’s just that they can chosen by their coaches to move on to the more ‘advanced’ leagues where they get professional coaching, more practice time, more games played, etc, and therefore end up simply being better than the others
• this proves that the notion of “it’s the best and brightest who rise to the top” is complete garbage
  • the star hockey player is better than us, but that’s cause he got a big head start - one that he neither earned nor deserved
• this phenomenon is called the Matthew Effect
  • it’s the best students who get further attention to become even better, it’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks leading to more wealth, it’s the biggest 9 year olds who get chosen and get the most coaching and practice, etc
• this is called ‘accumulative advantage’
  • the hockey player starts off with a tiny bit of an advantage, i.e. being bigger due to his birthday, and that advantage accumulates to something much larger
  • in other words, the star hockey player is an “outlier”, but he did NOT start as an outlier, he simply started off a tiny bit better
• this is a problem in athletics because now you’re talent pool is much smaller. Think about all the talented kids born after July who simply didn’t get a chance. You simply cannot choose who moves on to the ‘advanced’ leagues at such a young age. You have to wait until a 12 month age difference levels out
• an alternative system is to have more leagues / more classes
  • make 3 classes in school: Jan - Apr, May - Aug, Sep - Dec
  • this will ensure kids are ‘competing’ with those with the same maturity level as them. Same applies for sports.
• this proves that the idea that success is the outcome of individual merit is not fully true. The world in which we grow up and the society we live in matter too.
  • Our opportunities are the MAIN determiner of success

Chapter Two: The 10,000 Hour Rule

• this chapter is about Bill Joy, the man who re-wrote UNIX and JAVA. The god-father of computing.
• Talent is real. Achievement = talent + preparation
• there was a study done at a top Berlin music school. Only the most talented went to this school. They put the students into 3 groups, the exceptional students, average, and poor (even the poor are very good cause this is the ‘top’ music school in Berlin). The asked how much they practiced. What did they find?
  • the ‘exceptional’ group practiced way way way more than any other group. That’s why they are so good. They also found ZERO students who were exceptional who didn’t practice as much. So EVERY SINGLE student who was exceptional, practiced WAY more than all the rest.
  • This study proves that once you have the ability to get to the ‘top’ of your field, what distinguishes you is pure handwork and nothing else.
  • this study also showed that 10,000 hours was required to achieve the ‘exceptional’ status
• all the people we think of as ‘prodigies’ were simply hard working people.
  • Mozart’s early works were average. Only after 10 years of hard work did we start producing masterpieces
  • 10 years is roughly 10,000 hours
• so even when we go back to the hockey team, the kids born later, although VERY talented, are not chosen to play in the ‘all-stars’ or whatever is more advanced, because of their small size, therefore they get LESS practice. So as they age and the NHL is looking for players, those born later simply played less and have less practice, therefore wouldn’t be as good
• another key point is that putting in 10k hours is hard. You need a family who supports you, money so that you can pay for your lessons and so you don’t have to work a second job (therefore losing time practicing), and many other factors.
• back to Bill Joy
• he was indeed a smart kid, but just by chance he landed himself at the Michigan University that had the best computer at the time in the 70s. He spend SOOO much time there practicing programming. On top of that, the software had a bug so he could program for free as much as he wanted to.
• By Bill’s own admission, he had practiced 10k hours before he really became good
• Gladwell goes on to prove his point further by using The Beatles and Bill Gates as case studies
• 75 richest people in all of history:
  • 14 of them are Americans born in the 1830s… all within 9 years of each other.
  • Turns out, in the 60s and 70s there was a huge economic boom that these people took advantage of. Those born after the 30s were too young, those born before were too old and stuck in the old ways

Chapter Three: The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1

• this chapter talks about geniuses, those with IQs above 130 or so
• Gladwell shows that IQ is important, but past a certain point it doesn’t matter. Someone with an IQ of 180 isn’t ‘smarter’ than someone with an IG of 130.
• Gladwell also shows that there are other things other than IQ that matter, like a ‘divergence test’ (i.e. think about all the uses of a brick)
  • IQ test = convergence
  • divergence is more creative
  • a study at an elite boys high school showed that the ‘gifted’ IQ student had one of the worst answers in the divergence test. Not really Nobel-prize worthy eh?

Chapter Four: The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 2

• ‘practical intelligence’ is very crucial
  • it is “knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect”
• general intelligence (IQ) and practical intelligence are ‘orthogonal’, meaning just cause you have one, does NOT mean you have the other
• Oppenheimer had high practical intelligence (and IQ obviously), but it was because of his practical intelligence that he was so successful. He could talk his way into getting things he wanted. Chris Langan on the other hand, just as smart, didn’t have the practical intelligence to become successful.
• the question is, where did this ‘practical intelligence’ come from? The way you are raised.
• Gladwell presents a study done of researchers following around many families for a long period of time. They found there were really only two parenting styles.
  • the wealthy parents spent a lot of time caring for their kids extra-curriculars, the talents, interests, quizzing them, signing them up for sports and activities, etc etc
  • the poor parents did none of that. Kids of the poor parents often signed for the soccer team on their own, etc
  • this entire study is interesting. Page 102 - 108
  • because of these differences in how they were raised, the wealthy kids had higher practical intelligence
• Oppenheimer came from a wealthy family in Manhattan. His upbringing was exactly like the wealthy parent group in the study. Meanwhile Chris Langan was the complete opposite.
• another study tracked IQs of the most ‘genius’ kids in an area, around 700+ up until their adult years. The researcher then followed up with them when they were adults to see where they were at. He found that the top 150 became super successful, the bottom 150 were failures, and everyone in the middle was doing ‘fine’.
  • he wanted to investigate why the bottom 150 failed in life, even though they were as ‘genius’ as the top 150. The only determining factor: FAMILY BACKGROUND. The top 150 came from MIDDLE/UPPER class families where majority of the parents were college graduates. The bottom 150 came from poor families where almost 1/3 of their parents were high school drop-outs
• going back to Chris Langan, it’s not his fault he couldn’t make it big like Oppenheimer. The latter simply had a lot of help along the way. Chris had zero help, his family was useless unfortunately. This isn’t an excuse, it’s simply a fact.
  • no one can make it alone: Bill Gates didn’t make it alone, professional athletes didn’t make it alone, Oppenheimer didn’t make it alone.

Chapter Five: The Three Lessons of Joe Flom

• Joe Flom was a Jewish lawyer, raised in a poor neighborhood in New York by poor parents. How did he become so successful when his whole upbringing was disadvantageous?
• Lesson #1: The Importance of Being Jewish
  • Joe Flom (and other Jewish lawyers) were often discriminated against and couldn’t get jobs. This forced them to start their own firms.
  • What kind of law work / clients did they get? The ones the big firms rejected, mainly being ‘takeover law’ / M&A (when a company wants to acquire another company, often in an aggressive manner)
  • This was a relatively small area of law, until the mid 70s-80s when it boomed. Company acquisitions became mainstream and common.
  • At this point, the big law firms had no experience with this, but Jewish lawyers like Joe Flom have been doing this for decades so all the business went to him
  • What started as adversity ended up being an opportunity
• Lesson #2: Demographic Luck
  • the Terman study showed that your family wealth matters when it came to your success, but if you grouped the successes and failures into 2 groups, those born in 1903-1911, and those 1912-1917, you’ll find the former group were mainly failures.
    • this is because they graduated college at the worst time during great depression when there were no jobs, and they were likely conscripted for WW2
  • this lesson studies the case of a father and son, Maurice and Mort Janklow
  • both lawyers, father was a failure, son was a success
  • why? Father had to deal with the great depression and a failing business. The son was born in the 30s, the decade that had the lowest birth rates. Therefore when he entered school, the job market, etc there was a shortage of new applicants, giving him a better chance. Schools were less full, thus teachers gave more time to each student.
  • so for being a lawyer, being born in the 1930s was the best, 1950s for a computer programmer, and 1830s for an entrepreneur
  • the lesson here is that, sometimes even when you have the intellect + all the other advantages, if you’re born in the wrong year you just can’t make it
• Lesson #3: The Garment Industry and Meaningful Work
  • This lesson talks a lot about Meaningful Work
  • this lesson covers the story of a Polish immigrant to New York in the late 1800s. He found an opening in the new clothing market: children’s aprons. He became very successful focusing on this niche market.
  • a sociologist Louise in 1980s tracked down the children of immigrants to the States who would’ve immigrated in the late 1800s / early 1900s. She wanted to find out how successful the family tree is
    • Louise found out that often times the grand children of the original Jewish immigrant was very successful, either a doctor or lawyer
    • This tell us that these people became successful BECAUSE of their humble origins. The kids watched their parents work hard and succeed and they learned from it.
  • the garment industry was a breeding ground for Jewish successful kids/grandkids. Joe Flom’s father, Oppenheimer’s father, etc, were in the garment industry.
• in other words, to be a successful lawyer at the time, you had to have been born in 1930, Jewish, and the child or grandchild of garment industry workers.

Part Two: Legacy

• The purpose of part 2 is to show that the traditions and attitudes we inherit from our ancestors can also play a role in our success, just like opportunity can as explained in part 1

Chapter Six: Harlan, Kentucky

• This chapter talks about a town in Kentucky on the Appalachian mountains during the 19th century. There was a feud between the two founding families that saw the deaths of many of their family members
• Experts have noticed that this pattern of family feuding occurred in other small towns too along the Appalachian. Why?
• The reason is because they had a [[Culture of Honor#Your origins causing an ‘honor culture’[ 1]|Culture of Honor]]
• Experts found that crime and violence happened in these areas at a higher rate, but the cause was rarely economic (as in other areas) but rather ‘honor’
• Another study [[Culture of Honor#Study to test out anger levels among college students coming from various parts of the US[ 1]|showed that ‘cultural legacies’ have a big impact on people many generations later]]
• keypoint The point of this chapter is to prove that cultural legacies are a very real thing and can have a big impact on people

Chapter Seven: The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes

• keypoint This chapter is about the power of effective Effective Communication. The examples are about plane crashes.
• effective communication (avoiding “mitigated speech”) is what leads to the decrease of plane crashes
• The story of the Columbian pilots crashing shows us that some ethnic groups are passive in their speech naturally, or naturally use more mitigated speech
• the psychologist Geert Hofstede created “Hofstede’s Dimensions”. There were various measurements to assess cultures
  • individualism-collectivism scale
  • uncertainty avoidance scale
  • PDI - power distance index (measure of how much a culture values and respects authority)
• Some countries are high in PDI, some are low
• as mentioned in the previous chapter, your communication method is part of your Cultural Legacies that is passed down. This is related to the PDI of a country.
• Columbia and South Korea are some of the highest PDI countries, meaning they greatly value authority. If you look at the top 5 countries, it closely matches the ranking of plane crashes by country
  • this just proves it’s all about communication. Higher PDI pilots simply don’t assert themselves either to traffic control or to their captain, thus leading to disaster.
• there is hope. Korean Air hired an American, Greenberg, to run their flight operations. He completely re-trained the Korean pilots and fixed the problem. He reversed their poor communication and use of mitigated speech.
• keypoint just cause you’re born that way, doesn’t mean you can’t change it

Chapter Eight: Rice Paddies and Math Tests

• why are Asians good at math? It’s because of their numbers. English has a very odd numbering scheme (why is twelve not ‘two-teen’). Because of this, English kids are an ENTIRE year behind Asian kids when it comes to learning to count. On top of that, Cantonese numbers are very logical, so the equation is often right in the words - p. 229
• Asians can also remember numbers much easier. This is because their numbers are short.
  • 4 is ‘si’, 7 is ‘qi’
  • four and seven take longer to pronounce
• rice farming is a lot more difficult than regular farming. Asians were way more hours than their European counterparts
• rice farming by Asians was also meaningful, it fulfilled all 3 qualities as described in Meaningful Work
  • it was autonomous cause they often worked for themselves. Asian countries never developed the oppressive feudal system that Europeans had.
• Asians also had a different mentality. You can see it in their proverbs
  • Russian: “If God does not bring it, the earth will not give it”
  • Chinese: “If a man works hard, the land will not be lazy”, or “no one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.” - p. 238
• these proverbs make sense: go to any campus library and the Asians are there late at night after everyone has left
• attitude and persistence is what makes you good at math, as demonstrated by the Renee example (p.246). Success is a function of persistence and the willingness to work hard. Now imagine an entire country full of people like this. This is why Asians are good at math
• keypoint This chapter is about hard work. He uses Asians being good at math as the primary example. They are good at math cause they work hard

Chapter Nine: Marita’s Bargain

• this chapter is about KIPP schools, a schools system philosophy that takes Cultural Legacies seriously
• A sociologist Karl Alexander did a study analyzing the exam results of grade 1 to grade 5 students split across low, middle, and high income families. He found that when you take into account summer vacation, the high income kids significantly benefited from vacation, i.e. their exam marks shot up. During the school year, the results are practically the same.
  • this tells us that the differences are likely due to the parenting style differences discussed in Chapter Four The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 2
  • the rich kids are still learning during the summer while the poor kids are not
• if you remove summer vacation, poor kids and rich kids exam marks would be the same.
  • this explains Asian’s superiority in math. They do not have a long vacation in Asian countries.
• American doesn’t have a school problem, it has a summer vacation problem. This is what the KIPP schools tried to solve.
• So what is KIPP?
  • shorter summer vacations
  • 7:30 - 5 school hours
  • lots of homework (often 2-3 hours worth)
  • 5 hours of school on Saturday
• KIPP was started in poor neighbourhoods to give disadvantaged kids a chance
  • high-income kids already get that additional educations from all the extra programs their parents put them in. Poor kids don’t have that. KIPP gave that to them and now they are succeeding as the same rate as rich kids.
• 80% of KIPP graduates go to college, often the first in their family to do so
• “Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” - p. 267
• keypoint it’s all about opportunities. That’s all people need. If many other kids in the 60s also had access to a computer terminal, we’d like have dozens of Bill Gates. If Canada had a second league for those born May - December, we’d have double the amount of hockey stars.

Epilogue: A Jamaican Story

• This chapter is about Malcolm Gladwell’s mother and her upbringing in Jamaica and all the opportunities she had along the way. It echoes everything he’s been saying in this entire book.

Main Idea of the Book

• success being the outcome of individual merit is NOT fully true. The world and society we grow up in matter too. Our opportunities are the main determiner of success.
  • some opportunities are out of our control, such as the year we’re born in. But that just means we have to work twice as hard.
  • examples of opportunities would be the year you’re born in, the economic status of your parents, your race/ethnicity, the month you’re born in, and many more
• the saying ‘practice makes perfect’ is certainly true. But again, it’s simply not the whole picture. Some people simply can practice more than others due to other advantages they have in life (such as having a supportive family or money).
• No one can make it alone. Pretty much all successful people had help along the way.
• the most precious gift you can give someone is the gift of opportunity
• It’s all about the opportunities. If Canada had a second league for those born May - Dec, we’d have DOUBLE the amount of hockey stars.

Reflections

Overall I really enjoyed the book. No complaints.

The overall message I got from it for my life personally was that life is unfair. Some people get lucky, some people are just born at the right time and right place to the right parents. But at the end of the day, all people can achieve varying levels of success, it just depends on how much work you’re willing to put into it

Footnotes

1. this is a saying of Asian rice farmers who are known to be very hard working due to the inherent difficulties of farming rice ↩