In this generation, many of us are told to create a trait that can lead us to success. A trait that will guide us to be the best version of ourselves. Others, are told, if they want to live a “good life”, they need to be intelligent. To be successful and intelligent, is to become someone extraordinary, standing out from the crowd. When an opportunity is given to you, do not be shy and take action. If you take too long to grasp the opportunity given to you, you will eventually miss a chance to do something great. In the book of Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, he provides an informative nonfiction book to his readers about what makes a person successful. Specifically in chapter 4 of his book, Trouble with Geniuses: Part 2, Gladwell …show more content…
mainly talks about two people who are known to be “geniuses”, Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. He thoroughly compares both of them based on their accomplishments in seeing how successful they are. One becomes successful by having practical intelligence, entitlement, and cultural advantage. It is important to remember that opportunities do not happen. You create them by taking action. There are two types of intelligences, analytical intelligence and practical intelligence.
Analytical intelligence is what many may know, being known to be smart due to understanding different concepts. Practical intelligence is “knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect” (Gladwell). Which is what many, including Chris Langan, lack in. Although Chris Langan is known as a prodigy and to have the highest Intelligence Quotient score, he did not have good communication skills. Langan was in need of building relationships, mainly with authority. He did not advance vigorously to take action because he was raised to be self-independent. Him not having a good relationship with his alcoholic and abusive father, led him in having a hard time to connect with others. On the other hand, Robert Oppenheimer was extremely skillful in having “practical intelligence”, which led him in being successful in that way. He was able to communicate himself out of consequences, that was led by his depression, and getting to know people who would help him become more successful. Not only did Robert Oppenheimer used this skill of practical intelligence to get what he wanted, but being prerogative was another key to …show more content…
success. Oppenheimer, coming from a rich family, had more advantages.
For example, he attended an ivy league school to work his way to earning a degree. Attending a better school compared to Lagan, having his own private tutor in college, and simply being social, were his benefits. Oppenheimer was really good at just navigating the world. He was given more opportunities to be known as somebody and being fully entitled to be known as someone. He became heavily involved, especially when he had his tutor, even though he never wanted to take the opportunities granted to him. “It's because he possessed the kind of savvy that allowed him to get what he wanted from the world” (Gladwell). This was expressed about Oppenheimer due to having the type of advantage that Langan did not. Since Chris Langan grew up in a poor environment, he learned to be independent. Being independent is not a bad thing, it is important to remember what Gladwell states in his chapter, “...no one, not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses ever makes it alone” (Gladwell). Which clearly shows that successful individuals meet new people along their way to success. Langan was just afraid to speak, he was shy. This is not something uncommon, what Langan needed was simply a community that prepared him for the world. He needed to be evolved by successful people, people known to have college degrees. He needed people to look up to, mentors and tutors. Not only does being
entitled help you prosper in life, but so does your cultural advantage. Believe it or not, getting to know and understanding family background does determine partial of who you are. For others, it becomes their identity. Annette Lareau, who is a sociologist, studies very critically on a group of third graders. The sets of families are different and range from wealthy to poor and black to white. She analyzes the way they are being raised. Seeing these students being raised, helps her compare and contrast what makes someone successful. She comes down to conclusion that the wealthier kids whined too much and the poor kids had much more manners. The students with natural growth within their homes, shaped them in the person and student they were. As mentioned by Lureau analyzing one of her third graders, “...his mother and father in the manner of educated families have painstakingly taught them to him, nudging and prodding and encouraging and showing him the rules of the game...” That shows that this kid had the advantage of being taught how to speak academically just by growing up with rich parents. Keeping in mind that Langan was poor and Oppenheimer was rich, it was deeply compared that the wealthier kids developed an interest to formal talent than the poor kids being well-developed in the sense of independence and poised. It also became noticed that if in a family history, someone had a college degree or higher education and became successful, the trend would continue through the years of earning some sort of degree. With that, recognize that not having the highest Intelligence Quotient score does not mean that you will not be successful compared to someone who does. The visuality of the comparison between Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer, you can see that Langan was not successful because he was deficient in practical intelligence. Living in a low income community, where having high education, is not common. While Robert Oppenheimer did have practical and analytical intelligence, he had too much of confidence and brought his emotions to overwhelm when things did not go the way he wanted. Create a unique trait that makes you special and take every opportunity given to you.
“People don't rise from nothing....It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't”(Gladwell 18).
In the second chapter of his book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” Malcolm Gladwell introduces what he believes to be a key ingredient in the recipe for success: practice. The number of hours he says one must practice to obtain expert-level proficiency in a particular skill is ten thousand hours. He goes on to list several examples of successful individuals and makes the correlation between the amount of hours they practiced their skill and when they achieved expert-level proficiency (almost always around ten thousand hours of practice). While the magic number appears to be the main focus of the chapter when it comes to success, Gladwell seems to put more emphasis on the advantage and opportunities each individual experienced. However, I believe the determining factor that distinguished their successful careers was their drive, passion and dedication to put in the hours necessary to turn those unique opportunities into success.
Malcolm Gladwell, in the nonfiction book Outliers, claims that success stems from where you come from, and to find that you must look beyond the individual. Malcolm Gladwell develops and supports his claim by defining an outlier, then providing an example of how Stewart Wolf looked beyond the individual, and finally by giving the purpose of the book Outliers as a whole. Gladwell’s purpose is to explain the extenuating circumstances that allowed one group of people to become outliers in order to inform readers on how to be successful. The author writes in a serious and factual tone for the average person in society of both genders and all ethnicities who wants to become successful in life.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no such thing as a self-made man, and that success is only the result of a person’s circumstances. However, throughout the novel Gladwell points out that your circumstances and opportunities only help you become successful if you are willing to take advantage of them and work hard. From a twelve year old living in the Bronx, to those who were born at just the right time to become millionaires, one thing is the same throughout; these people because successful because they seized the opportunities they were given. The advantages and opportunities that came from their circumstances would not be important if they had not grasped them. Every successful man is self made, because he has seized the
What would happen if our world today was monotonous, sorrowful, and grey? What if no one was here to form new creations, and think of bold ideas? Would triumph have a definition? Would there be outliers in our world today? We are constantly thinking, always generating new ideas and forming new thoughts. People even proceed by creating inventions, and building objects no one would of thought would be made today. But, what we don’t perceive is how they became successful and how they took advantage of the moment that was given to them. In the novel, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, the author explains that an outlier is one who is given an opportunity and knows how to take advantage. He believes that in order for a person to be successful they need at least ten thousand hours of hard work and effort in order to succeed at a skill. It is clear to me that like Malcolm Gladwell, I believe
Malcolm Gladwell is a canadian-english journalist, speaker, and bestselling author. In his bestselling book “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell discusses success and what patterns correlate with it. He states that how much time you put into a certain activity, specifically 10,000 hours, can put you in a elite level of proficiency. This in turn can give someone the tools to allow them the ability to be successful. Using historical citations, patterns, and real life examples, Gladwell forms his 10,000 hour rule. Due to his knowledgeable yet calm tone Gladwell seems to show credibility. His intended audience could be people who enjoy statistics or people who want to be successful and find possible ways to do so. Gladwell uses a logical appeal to show the patterns he has found through his studies of success. He supports his claim with overwhelming statistics which back it. He also uses similes to help better understand how he can relate the patterns he has found for the elite in a certain activity to other things. Foil is probably Gladwell's best means of convincing the reader to his thesis of the 10,000 hour rule. He uses Foil to compare success and we define to legends such as Bill Gates The Beatles and Bill Joy. Overall Gladwell uses Logos, similes, and foils to support his claim of the 10,000 hour rule.
Gladwell gives differing definitions of intelligence. Yet his definition of success is singular—"worldly" success in terms of wealth, power, and fame. Are there also differing definitions of success that Gladwell doesn't consider? If so, what are they, and what does it take to achieve those versions of success? What is your definition of success, and how does it compare to Gladwell’s? Has your definition of success changed at all?
Once in a while, it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. Gladwell believes that cultural legacies are powerful forces. Cultural legacies are the customs of a family or a group of people, that is inherited through the generations. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, Cultural legacies is something that’s been passed down for generations to generations. It depends on what type of legacies was passed that will affect a person. If a good legacy was passed down, someone can keep that legacy going by trying hard at keeping the legacies going. If a bad legacy was passed down; I believe that cultural legacies can be altered or changed, by good working habits, determination, and a positive mindset to succeed. Culture can affect either positively or negatively, but we have the power to turn our cultural
Malcolm Gladwell makes many debatable claims in his book “The Outliers”. One of these controversial topics is brought up in chapter three when he talks about a person’s IQ and how that relates to one’s success. Gladwell says, “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. 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.”After reading “Outliers” I believe that this is the greatest controversial topic. I agree with Malcolm Gladwell because there are a high amount of people who are not incredibly smart that are very successful, success can be viewed differently by different people, and from my own experiences on the U-High
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers is an extremely informative read about success and the different aspects that attribute to it. Gladwell is able to use many studies and sources that back up his theories of how success is achieved. Although he is biased towards his theories, the only real argument that can be made in opposition to his theories would be a debate over exceptions to the 10,000 Hour Rule. Outliers ultimately has a positive effect on the audience by making them more aware of their own chances at success and how if they may be lacking in one area (education, opportunity, creativity) all hope is not lost. Gladwell’s piece is essentially timeless and will be able to be applied to future generations because he used examples from a few different eras that still make sense to today.
Malcolm Gladwell’s overall purpose of Outliers: The Story of Success is that success is largely determined by an individual’s socioeconomic and sociocultural environment, and individual ambition, effort, or talent, are less significant, contrary to the societal notions associated with success. In other words, success is not something that someone randomly gained; success is earned through opportunities that develop dedication, interest, and skill over time. By doing this, will one become an outlier, or “something that is situated away or classed differently from a main or related body,” (Gladwell 3) that distinguishes great from good and best from great, as exemplified by “The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that the and his colleagues couldn’t find any “naturals”, musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did.” (Gladwell 39) Gladwell also acknowledges societal norms such that “All of the fourteen men and woman on the list above had vision and talent,” (Gladwell 62-63) to assert hard work, ability, et cetera can lead to success, but a social environment that offers such opportunities immensely increases the likelihood of success.
...est high school students in America” (Gladwell 82). It was shocking to learn that all the Nobel Prize in Medicine winners did not all come from the most prestigious schools. Also, in the third chapter I notices some aspects that were highly relatable to me. My life relates to subjects included in chapter three because I am a student. It is interesting and helpful to learn that one does not need the highest IQ to succeed in today’s world. This is how I relate to chapter three. The third chapter in Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell had striking information that stated that IQs do not always determine who will be successful, and I can relate to the information in the chapter because I am student who has thought about my IQ before.
Are the various millionaires from the world truly self-made men or is their success a result of a more complex outside source- the environment? In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell analyzes how people achieve success. He stresses the belief that success is obtained by other factors beyond personal characteristics like IQ, work ethic, talent and ambition. To truly understand success, one must go deeper and look at the “hidden” reasons, such as birthdates, hours put in, cultural background and timing. Individuals credit their own success on their merit, but it’s decided on other factors outside their control.
In Chapter 8 and 9 of Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell exams some of the ways that Asian and American students learn math, arguing that some of the principles in the US education system should be reconsidered. I generally agree with Gladwell’s point of view. I believe in two ways, students ' principal spirit and the length of students’ studying, the US education system leaves much to be desired, though an overhaul is in progress.
Many people, like me, believe success generally presents itself in one of two ways, luck or hard work. Some of us get lucky and are born into a family of wealth and that pushes us ahead of our peers on the success rate while others spend hours of continuous practice to excel them beyond the average. Up until now I always believed success was what people made of their own situations. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell argues that this belief is only partially true. Many factors contribute to making a person an outlier through success, such as, uncontrollable opportunities or factors, hard work, community ties, practice, patronage and parentage. From my experience, I found that true success lies within the midst of all these