I just finished reading the most recent Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers : The Story of Success. It’s his third book, and like the first two, The Tipping Point and Blink, this book became a #1 New York Times Bestseller. I haven’t read the other two books, but based on this book, it’s easy to see why.
This book actually reminds me in some ways of another book I loved, Freakonomics by Steven Levitt, in that Gladwell (like Levitt) combs through data in an attempt to challenge conventional wisdom. He’s chosen a different subject matter than Levitt, but it’s the same basic underlying premise, that we can learn more about how people work through social science. What Levitt calls economics, Gladwell calls sociology, but there are extreme intersections between any manner of social science, whether you’re calling it economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology or political science.
Like the title says, Outliers is a book about success. It’s about the circumstances that create success and successful people. Gladwell looked at groups of successful people and asked himself what makes them successful, such as, what do tech entrepreneurs and business giants like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt all have in common (hint: their birthday, and it has nothing to do with astrology)?
In general, he challenges the idea that success is one big Horatio Alger-esque meritocracy. The smartest, strongest, hardest workers don’t necessarily have the most success. One example he brings up is Chris Langan, the highest IQ on record, at allegedly 195. Gladwell examines the data and poses a hypothesis about why Mr. Langan, for all his brilliance, hasn’t accomplished more that has impacted the world in a positive way. The reason posed by Gladwell isn’t one that will be popular, but as with any of his theories, he offers lots of data and poses it in a way that’s difficult to dispute.
Gladwell tackles why some geniuses become successful and others aren’t. He tackles why Jewish lawyers have been so successful in the United States, why Asian kids are better at Math than White kids from the United States (it’s directly correlated with wet rice farming), and why Korean pilots crash so many planes. Like Levitt, he makes assertions that might offend some people, but he backs them up with a tremendous amount of research, and explains it simply.
He ends the book with his take on the US school system, and how he believes it can be improved and made more equitable. He argues that it’s possible to create a meritocracy with the right incentives and opportunities. Clearly, he believes that it’s difficult to give everyone a chance at success, the book repeatedly demonstrates just how difficult that is. This is where he sort of deviates from Levitt (besides being more focused in his subject matter). While Levitt is discussing why the crime rate has fallen so dramatically and why crack dealers still live with their mothers, Gladwell is using his last couple chapters in order to argue for change – how he thinks the world can be better. I admire that.
I’m sure there are lots of things I could find to criticize in this book. Gladwell clearly has an agenda and you can use the data to make arguments other than the ones that he made. I don’t care to criticize it, though, because frankly, I enjoyed it too much to worry about criticizing it. It’s a great book. It’s entertaining, informative and above all, it forces you to think about issues in a way you probably haven’t framed them in your mind before. I hope you’ll check it out. Feel free to let me know what you think if you do. Thanks for reading.
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I agree with you whole-heartedly. We could easily pick apart his arguments with counter-evidence. But I don’t think he writes to prove his theories, he writes to show us that there may be an alternative explanation than the accepted wisdom. And that is something we should all treasure.
Thanks for the review!