Outliers

I've finally picked up Outliers! So far, it's been an interesting read. To summarize, it basically explores how different successful paper have become successful. It goes against popular beliefs that hard work alone can help a person overcome all obstacles and become uber-successful. Instead, it suggests that there are certain qualities, such as a person's age or birth month, that contribute to an outlier's success. While Gladwell does give some credit to hard work, such as the 10,000 hour rule, he argues that it has more to do with opportunities presented to these individuals. I'm only on chapter five, so we'll see where he goes with this. The most interesting observation that Gladwell has made so far is his assertion that there is an "intelligence threshold." He says while there is a difference between those with an IQ of 70 and and IQ of 170, that anyone with an IQ of 130 or over has an equal chance of becoming a Noble Prize Winner or something successful. He states, "once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn't seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage" (Gladwell, 79). I thought this was cool, since my husband has an IQ in this threshold. Here is Anderson Cooper's interview with Malcolm Gladwell. He states that he wanted to explore the factors surrounding those who are successful, rather than examining the successful person themselves. He argues that it's not the born geniuses or those with "luck" who are successful, but where and when they grew up.