Malcolm Gladwell's The Matthew Effect

214 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: The myth of meritocracy essays

According to Malcolm Gladwell's interpretation, the Matthew Effect is that those who are successful are provided with special opportunities, which leads to further success. Success is based on “accumulative advantage” (page 30). Gladwell's quotation of the verse from the Bible says that those who have will be given more while those who have not will lose what they had. This is because people who are born with certain advantages will only have more of an advantage and the certain advantages will only spiral upwards from that point on. A meritocracy is the system in which success comes from hard work and talent. Malcolm Gladwell thinks that Canadian hockey players aren't an example of meritocracy because they're chosen based on their date

Show More
Related

  • Gladwell's Outliers: The Matthew Effect

    279 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Tone Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

    117 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • What Defines Success in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    As stated before Malcolm Gladwell presents a calm tone that doesn’t seem to push his argument but at the same time his argument is semi-flawed. He proves that there can be trends and patterns that can be correlated to success. He successfully showed this by stating the success stories of Bill Gates, the beatles and the soon to be successful Choir. Even though here and there he makes a couple of assumptions like the children in the academy his thesis is solid. (where? make an example) Malcolm Gladwell makes a lasting effect on how you view life, if patterns can be shown in overall success what else can their be patterns to. This piece really makes you think hard about things you might never have considered before and just accepted.

    Read More

  • Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine a society where owning books is illegal, and the penalty for their possession—to watch them combust into ashes. Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, illustrates just such a society. Bradbury wrote his science fiction in 1951 depicting a society of modern age with technology abundant in this day and age—even though such technology was unheard of in his day. Electronics such as headphones, wall-sized television sets, and automatic doors were all a significant part of Bradbury’s description of humanity. Human life styles were also predicted; the book described incredibly fast transportation, people spending countless hours watching television and listening to music, and the minimal interaction people had with one another. Comparing those traits with today’s world, many similarities emerge. Due to handheld devices, communication has transitioned to texting instead of face-to-face conversations. As customary of countless dystopian novels, Fahrenheit 451 conveys numerous correlations between society today and the fictional society within the book.

    Read More

  • The Matthew Effect In Malcolm Gladwell's Book 'Outliers'

    353 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, Malcolm attempts to explain the “Matthew effect” by way of allegory about the Canadian Hockey league. The Matthew effect as stated is derived from the religious writings of the gospel of Matthew. In the gospel, Jesus speaks about the parables of the talents, saying “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath”.

    Read More

  • Christianity and Liberalism by Gresham Machen-Machen

    1736 Words  | 4 Pages

    Machen was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1881. In 1898, Machen enrolled at Johns Hopkins University and became a brilliant scholar. In addition, Machen obtained theological studies in Germany in 1905 where he being thrown into confusion of his own faith because of the influence of the liberalism. After returning from Europe, In 1906, Machen join as an instructor in New Testament at Princeton Seminary.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Success In Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers?

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    1. Malcolm Gladwell’s primary objective in Outliers is to examine achievement and failure as cultural phenomena in order to determine the factors that typically promote success. His main argument that success results from a complicated mix of factors, requires taking a closer look at why certain people, and even entire groups of people, thrive while others fail. In the chapter “The Three lessons of Joe Flom” it describes another success story for the reader to inspect. The chapter is mostly about success and failure as we look into the life of a man who, against everyone he knew, succeeded in an occupation in which he had not been accepted in so he decide that he was going to make a name for himself anyway. Gladwell begins to describe Joe Flom's origins by revealing to the reader that his family was in poverty, “His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His father, Isadore, was a union organizer in the garment industry

    Read More

  • Kindred By Octavia E. Butler: Literary Analysis

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    America has not always been great, it has a dark history of slavery and racial discrimination, that are still present in the modern day. From the novel, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Dana is constantly summoned to travel back in time from 1976 to 1800s, to save and protect Rufus, a white son of a plantation owner, who later becomes the father who bores the child who later become Dana’s ancestor. Both the characters, Dana and Rufus struggle to accept each other’s differences of thought because of the difference in the timeline. The novel shows the problem of racial discrimination in both the timeline of 1800s and 1970s.

    Read More

  • Thin-Slicing In Malcolm Gladwell's Blink

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink explores the subconscious phenomenon “thin-slicing” and its manifestations in everyday life. “Thin-slicing” refers to the latent processes the brain executes, modeled from past experiences, which determine patterns in situations or behaviors. Gladwell expands upon this when he refers to “snap decisions” and “rapid cognition”, using the two terms interchangeably, as very quick “thin-slicing”. All three of these processes derive from neurological automaticity, which arises from repeat exposure to similar stimuli.

    Read More

  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell looks at a number of social epidemics and analyzes their build up to the point where they tip. “Tipping” is that point where an epidemic booms, or grows, to its maximum potential. Gladwell begins defining “tipping” with a literal example of the famous shoes, Hush Puppies. Once considered old-fashioned, Hush Puppies experienced a social boom in the mid-90s when hipsters in New York made them trendy again. Gladwell continues explaining “tipping” with a medical epidemic of syphilis in Baltimore. Gladwell introduces us to three essential rules of epidemics: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few says a key factor in epidemics is the role of the messenger: it spreads through word-of-mouth transmission. Gladwell explains this theory with an example of how Paul Revere managed to spread the news of British invasion overnight. Gladwell continues to explain that there are several types of people that create these types of epidemics. They are called Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors are those people that are very social and can literally connect with people with as little as two degrees of separation. Mavens are those that know a lot about a lot of different things. They may recommend a certain restaurant and you must go because you know what they told you about it is true. And Salesmen are exactly that: people that are easily social and persuading.

    Read More

  • Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    Physical, emotional and mental abuse is affected by the entire body. Physical is the outside, mental is the inside, and emotional is even deeper on the inside of the body. The people in this new world deal with this abuse every day. It has become a severe tragedy of what the future might become.

    Read More

  • Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: Cultural Legacies

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Gladwell Advantages

    496 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gladwell explores the idea that to become successful one must be given advantages and also capitalize on them. These advantages could be hidden, like birthdays, or overt, like financial status. I have been given advantages that help support me and give me different cultural perspective, allowing me to gain life experience.

    Read More

  • What Is The Purpose Of Matthew's Beatitudes

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mark Allan Powell’s article, “Matthew’s Beatitudes: Reversals and Rewards of the Kingdom,” interprets the passage, Matthew 5: 2-12, in hopes of accomplishing two main purposes. The first purpose is to demonstrate how the two-stanza structure of the beatitudes allows for the passage to be interpreted as a “coherent unit that promises both eschatological reversals for the unfortunate and eschatological rewards for the virtuous.” The second purpose is to challenge the long term idea that these reversals and blessings are specific to the faith community; as well as propose the idea that they are the result of God’s reign coming to earth.

    Read More

  • Privilege vs. Underprivileged: Important Things in Life

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    In spite of the privileged getting anything money can buy, an underprivileged person gets the important things money cant buy. Many people have heard the expression “if you give a man a fish you can feed them a day, if you teach a man to fish you can feed them a lifetime.” Well I believe privileged people are given fish and the underprivileged taught to fish.

    Read More

More about Malcolm Gladwell's The Matthew Effect

Open Document