Outliers (Subject)

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book that details the statistics behind success and why people end up leading a certain life. Outliers are the statistical anomalies that defy the prototypes people have set around the idea of the attainable. Gladwell uses anecdotes to analyze every factor that affects a person’s future, and he insinuates that people should not despair over their failed ambitions. Extreme cases of success such as Bill Gates or The Beatles are explained and scrutinized in order to solve the complex mystery of how they obtained a higher level of achievement. All of the examples he uses have the common factor of time. He explicitly states that the “10,000 hour rule” is what drives these people towards success rather than failure. Bill Gates programmed laptops for 10,000 hours in high school, and the Beatles played live music for 10,000 hours before reaching the peak of their fame.

Gladwell also acknowledges that chance plays a large role in achievement. What were the chances that Bill Gates would be born from a mother that was the director of IBM, a huge technology company? What were the chances of him even being born in the age of computers being used in high schools? It’s clear that if these two things had not occurred, he might not be where is today.

 Fate applies to every single example Gladwell proposes, and he does well to acknowledge that. Chance can work wonders or pride itself on breaking down every last bit of potential a person carries. Christopher Langan, is the supposed “Smartest Man in the World”. His IQ is 195, yet he is nowhere near as successful as Bill Gates. Naturally, someone would assume that a person as smart as this should be off somewhere in their yacht. Aside from being the smartest man in the world, he was also raised by an abusive step-father in poverty. College is known as the place of opportunity. Sadly for Langan, it was an opportunity he had to miss. He was essentially forced to drop out of college due to his mother failing to fill out the required forms properly. That was all it took for him to lose his chance.

Gladwell presses that chance has a huge role in success, and that a person should not feel upset that they aren’t a billionaire or a famous actor. Sometimes the situations that people must endure hinder them in their journey through life. The environment people are born to has a huge influence on: where they attend school, the friendships they make, the jobs they are able to have. It’s uncontrollable and virtually impossible to change, but there are always outliers.

- Angeleen So