In Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers he writes about how success comes from a numerous factors from extra opportunities that can open doors to genetic advantages that can be the difference in edging out competition. An “outlier” that I am quite familiar is my uncle Travis Knight. He is an obvious outlier because he stands at 7 feet tall and played basketball at the University of Connecticut and he played in the National Basketball Association for 7 seasons. His professional career was a result of many of the topics Malcolm Gladwell discusses, Early advantages often result in increased coaching or placement in accelerated programs which means more experience and significantly more practice than those who do not have the same opportunities. In chapter 2 Gladwell introduces the 10,000 hour rule, He says to …show more content…
Like Gladwell points out about the advantage in youth hockey being born at the beginning of the calendar year, Leagues are split into ages and if you are one of the oldest 6 year olds you are months more physically developed than those kids born in the later half of the year. The more developed and talented kids are given more coaching and time to practice than the younger smaller kids. The gap in talent only grows as time goes on, the more skilled get more coaching than less skilled which only widens the gap. My uncles all started school later and were born early in the school year, most graduated when they were around 18.5 years old. The extra half year let them grow more than most kids which meant they all had an obvious advantage playing with kids a little younger and shorter. That advantage meant that they were better than average at a young age and just like Gladwell showed in hockey, advantages only grow from there. As freshmen in highschool they were much taller and more skilled than their younger classmates, which helped them make varsity teams and the more skilled competition made them even
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.
Although many youngsters fail in the NBA, there are a few high school players who have had, or do have a successful career in the NBA. Some of these are, Moses Malone, Kobe Bryant, Tracey McGrady, and this year’s most valu...
Robinson, Mark D. Ph. D. “Every Black Kid Should Strive to Be a Professional Athlete”.
For example, Gladwell examines trends in the rosters of the elite Canadian Hockey League, finding that the majority of players were born in January, February, or March. Comparing these dates to the cutoff date for each age division, January 1, Gladwell proves that birthdates impact success, as the majority of hockey players who were older in each age division became successful because of maturing earlier than their younger peers in their age division. In terms of redshirting, Gladwell’s theory implies that a student who enters kindergarten one year older than the rest of their classmates will have a better chance of success due to earlier
Chapter 1 has familiarity in my life. In the 8th Grade my father moved us to the Midwest from Southern California; culture shock! Dad decided that I should play football at the Junior High, after all my cousin played on the team, and so did my father when he was in school. Most of the other players were a minimum of one year older than me. It is common practice for parents to hold their boys back a year to start school; this gives the boys a size advantage in sports. By the time adolescence rolls around, one year makes a big difference in a young man’s size. Also, I was born in November; not a prime year for sports league cut-offs. When it came playing football, I was severely outsized by my teammates. Due to my experience, I tend to agree with having sports league try-outs split into semesters or trimesters to allow the same opportunities available to more players.
“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).
Participating in a sport at an early age can be essential to the overall growth process during a child’s upbringing. Whether the participation is through some sort of organized league or just getting together amongst friends and playing, the lessons learned from this can help teach these kids and provide a positive message to them as they develop. There is a certain point, however, when organized sports can hinder progress, which is when adults get too involved and forget about the underlying reason to why they are helping. While adult involvement is necessary, adult involvement can sometimes send the wrong message to children when they try to make participation become more than just about fun and learning. According to Coakley (2009), “organized sports are worth the effort put forth by adults, as long as they do what is in the best interest of their children and put that thought ahead of their own agenda” (Coakley, p. 151). This is a valid argument because once adults put themselves in front of the children and their values, it needs to be re-evaluated as to why they first got involved in the beginning. Partaking in organized sport and activity from a young age can be beneficial to the overall development of children, as long as decisions actions are made in the best interest of the children and not stemming from ulterior motives of adults.
Even when one has a rough childhood and upbringing, they are able to take all of these hard times and turn them into motivation to work harder to improve not only their lives, but their family and friends lives. Through this hard work and dedication comes the 10,000 hour rule. Marcus Gladwell is a very well-known author, writer, and speaker from The New York Yorker; his first four books were on the New York Times best seller list and in 2005, Time magazine named Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people. Because of Gladwell’s outstanding achievements and background, it furthers his readers to believe that he is a very credible and knowledgeable resource. Gladwell’s purpose in writing Outliers is to teach and inform the audience about what an outlier really stands for and how some people become an outlier from a young age. Gladwell’s main audience is people around the world that are interested in the statistical studies. Gladwell, through the use of several rhetorical devices and examples is effectively able to express what it takes to be successful through the 10,000 hour rule....
“African Americans have just as amount of chance of becoming a professional athlete as he or she winning the lottery”. This so called goal of theirs is unrealistic and is highly impossible. There are so many sports athletes but majority of them are of a different c...
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.
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
Outliers-The Story of Success is a sociological, and psychological non-fiction book, which discusses success, and the driving reasons behind why some people are significantly more successful than others. Malcolm Gladwell explains this by dividing the book into two parts, opportunity and legacy. Opportunity discusses how select people are fortunate enough to be born between the months of January through March, and also includes the idea that those who are already successful will have more opportunities to improve and become even more successful. The 10,000-hour rule proves the idea that in order to become successful in a certain skill, one must have practiced that skill for at least 10,000 hours. In addition to the 10,000-hour rule, timing is also a major component that implies being in the right place at the right time, which brings the author to discuss Bill Gates who was born during the time where programming and computer technology was emerging, therefore sparking his interest in computers, later bringing him to create Microsoft. Another point Gladwell brings forth is the notion of one’s upbringing, race, and ethnicity can be a factor behind their success. And lastly, pursuing meaningful work will cause one to continue working with their skill and not give up. Legacy is a collection of examples that support the idea: values are passed down from generation to generation, which may cause a certain group of people to be more persistent in a skill, or occupation.
In addition, these examples of Kobe Bryant’s Hard work and dedication also relates back to Malcom Gladwell’s book “Outliers”. One of the reasons why it relates back to Outliers is because one of Gladwell’s keys to success involves both hard work and dedication. The 10,000-hour rule.It is clear to see that a huge contributor to Kobe Bryant’s success in the NBA was the amount of hard work and dedication he put towards basketball. However, it wasn’t the only thing that lead to his success in the
Occasionally, it is important to be born during certain times of the year in order to become better at a task that is being performed. In other words, people may have advantages depending on the time of the year they are born. They practice more for a sport or get further help for school. Gladwell says that “A boy who turns ten on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who does not turn ten until the end of the year…a twelve month gap in age represents enormous differences in physical maturity”(24). What he means is that a young boy born in January may have a greater physical advantage than a boy born in December when it comes to playing hockey. This example can be applied to any other sport. When the child starts conditioning at 6, his friend will be 5 and still to young to condition giving the older kid the advantage to play better. Every country arranges the cut off dates differently according to the sport and the season it is played in. Gladwell says, “The cutoff date for almost all non-school baseball leagues in the United States is July 31, with the result that more major league players are born in August than any other month”(26). If players are...
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.