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Malcom gladwell outliers and the sociological imagination
Why gladwell says his book outliers the story of success an outlier
Outliers malcolm gladwell criticism
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“I always have optimism, but I'm realistic. It was not with the expectation of great success that I started Tesla or SpaceX... It's just that I thought they were important enough to do anyway.” This is the mindset of one of the most successful people of this generation; importance and passion are more valued than the expectation of success. Elon Musk is one of today’s most well-known innovators, inventors, and entrepreneurs, but from my observations, not many people know the reasons how he became the “real-world version of Tony Stark.” From learning to code at age 9 to become the first man to ever launch his own company’s car into space using a reusable rocket; Musk is a prime example of a true outlier. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, discusses his research on the backgrounds, economic statuses, work ethics, birthdays who have become successful. For Musk, I believe, his success was crafted by external factors and driven from his upbringing as a child such as the financial status of his parents, and the abundance of opportunities he received as he shaped his career. The journey of Elon Musk matters because it provides additional evidence to
I found Gladwell’s first chapter of Outliers entitled “The Matthew Effect” to be both interesting, confusing, and perhaps somewhat lopsided. Based on Matthew 25:2, Gladwell simply explains, “It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given to the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.” (Gladwell 2008, pg. 30) The Matthew Effect seems to extend special advantages and opportunities to some simply based on their date of birth.
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.
Examples of this are people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who were the perfect age during the computer revolution in 1975, when the personal computer was invented and made widely available. However, not every person born in the same year as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates became a multimillionaire. Why? The ones who became successful were those who took a risk, and were willing to work hard to make something out of the computer revolution. When looking at people who gained their success from the invention of personal computers, Gladwell points out that “These are stories… about people who were given a special opportunity to work really hard and seized it” (67). One of Bill Gates’ advantages was that he went to Lakeside High School, which had a computer lab in a time when most schools did not. Everyone at Lakeside had access to that computer lab, but only a few students grew up to be the creators of the world’s best computer companies. Those who became successful were the students like Bill Gates, who worked hard in that computer lab and grew up to be world-class programmers. If someone is given unique opportunities but is not willing to seize them, they will not gain any success from those opportunities. Success is self made because in order to be successful, one must take advantage of the unique chances they are
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.
I think Gladwell’s book is an interesting science. I am not sure I know enough to say it is good science yet, but the Medicine Hat Tigers example he used is surely a convincing argument for good science. Gladwell cleverly redirected the reader’s attention to the birthdays of the Tigers rosters, something a Psychologist (Roger Barnsley) had done some time ago also pointed out by Gladwell in his book. But what Gladwell did that could be construed as good science is replace the players’ names with their birthdays to highlight when the more successful players on the team were born, January, February, March and April to be exact. This is good science if the discovery’s technique was used to draft players in all sports going forward as seems to be the indication in Gladwell’s book.
One of Tesla’s traits that can be argued as a symptom of great success is his insomnia and addiction to work. According to John J. O’Neill, Tesla experienced “a five-hour period of rest with only two hours of that devoted to sleep.” Therefore, he exhibited a power over his body that few possess. Tesla also received impressive celebrity within his lifetime. According to Jill Jonnes, “Tesla settled happily back into the opulence of the Waldorf-Astoria, enjoying his own celebrity.” Tesla seems to be enjoying his fame within the community of Waldorf-Astoria, and quote suggests that he was famous in general. I would love to learn from Tesla how to devote myself more fully to scientific development, and how to cope with the fame that comes with that devotion. I would like to be able to cope with the fame that comes with helping
The Author of the novel Outliers A Story Of Success Malcolm Gladwell not only is he an author but also a speaker and a journalist from Canada who worked in the New Yorker . The book that will be discussed here is called Outliers which means that an individual or an object is different from other members of the same category or group . The author’s main thesis statement in the book is that people are successful not only because of their hard work and natural ability but because of unseen advantages and opportunities .
In the minds of many, intelligence not only excels your experience in education, but is also the key to a successful career. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell refutes this thought by expanding on the belief that intelligence can only take you so far, and that creativity and innovation tend to lead to just as much success. This thought process applies to many different levels of life including our interview and acceptance into the ACTION program.
According to The New Yorker, “Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996… He is the author of three New York Times best-sellers: “The Tipping Point,” “Blink,” and Outliers” (Author Malcolm Gladwell). One of Gladwell’s three best-sellers is Outliers: The Story of Success. Outliers is a book that describes the traits of successful people. Instead of focusing on the traits that most people do, such as intelligence, personality, and ambition; he focuses on traits such as their culture, experience, and their family. Outliers are people who achieve more than the average person, but according to Gladwell intelligence alone is not the way to achieve it. He believes that there are many other factors that contribute
For example, Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, earned a scholarship to Harvard University, and took his time and spent it all on the school's computer and he knew he had potential. So he dropped out of college his sophomore year, and started a company: Microsoft. This man is what is known a as a pure risk taker. Gladwell states, “Bill gates got to do-real-time programming as an eighth grader” (12). He then evolved his company and he launched it on April 4th, 1975. He knows how to sell his products to needing customers. He interprets how to communicate with customers to attract them to his product that he wants to sell. He excelled at monopolizing his company. In all, he went way beyond just ten years. He knew that in all these events that led to his goal, he was exceedingly lucky. This does not mean he wasn't a brilliant man or that he just relied on luck. He just had excellent communication skills and knows how to sell and induce customers to buy his product, and this led him to achieve a great
The definition of success varies around the world, but according to Malcolm Gladwell its achievement can be broken down into a few components. Although Gladwell never truly establishes credibility in his book Outliers, he still backs up his proposed theories with reputable studies and sources which intrigue the audience to keep reading.The purpose of Outliers was to enlighten people about the different elements of success while also informing them of real life situations where seemingly less than likely people beat the odds and became the powerful figures that they are today. The intended audience is anyone who is looking to become successful or who is perhaps interested in the idea of success itself and wishes to learn more about it. Understandably, a secondary audience could be high school students who are about to venture out into the world on their own because with this book they will hopefully start paying attention to different factors of their lives and seizing opportunities that they may have otherwise passed up. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 Hour Rule and also how I.Q. does not amount to much without creativity. He also speaks of how chance opportunity comes into play and that the distant background of a person still reflects how they handle situations in their present day life. Gladwell’s Outliers successfully informs the reader about the different components that add up to success with probable theories and credible studies to make for an interesting and motivational read.
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
His career in journalism began after he was rejected from every advertising agency he applied for. He finally ... ... middle of paper ... ... ssed with such skills to be successful, there is always time to improve both business and designing skills to become a successful fashion designer. Other than how this book personally encouraged me and discouraged me, it was eye opening to see such a coincidence of birthdates among all-star hockey players and how Bill Gates just happened to be born in the wake of computer technology.
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.
After reading the introduction in the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I was struck by some interesting information and noticed things within the introduction that were relevant to my life. In the introduction, Gladwell basically gave a summary of a town called Roseto. He went on to explain that the people that lived in Roseto never died of heart dieses and other illnesses because of the way their community grew up. The information was very intriguing. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell states, “For men over sixty-five, the death rate from disease in Roseto was roughly half that of the United States as a whole” (Gladwell 7). This information within the book was highly shocking to me. How could this be possible? I continued reading, and the shocking statement was better explained. As the introduction continued, Malcolm Galdwell said, “The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny little town in the hills” (Gladwell 9). When reading this, I was flabbergasted. How did how one lives have anything to do with ones health? It was striking to me because I never connected life style to health. After reading the introduction, the information taught me that how one lives does result in how one’s health and life span may be. After reading the introduction, some of the information seemed relevant to my life. Malcolm Gladwell exclaimed, “They looked at how the Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards” (Gladwell 9). This is relevant to my life because I grow up in very conservative and close knit family. Like the citizens of Roseto, I live differently than the normal teenagers ...