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....
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.
Too often, students are taught that their lives are defined by who they are and what they do, not by circumstances. But circumstances can be very crucial to determining how a person’s life is shaped. It’s no secret that not all schools and neighborhoods are created equal. Some schools offer advanced classes, and college prep, and opportunities, while some schools don’t even have textbooks. Even within the circumstances, there are circumstances. The students in the latter school that lacks textbooks may have parents who go the extra mile to ensure that they have more opportunities, or could have parents who don’t have the resources to do that. Environment and circumstance can make a huge difference, and Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore is a fantastic
Moreover, most of these successful figures stories are well known, which allows for a reassurance that Gladwell is not fabricating information. Lastly, Gladwell uses multiple examples to prove his key argument points. While discussing how when you were born affects your success, Gladwell mentions, “And if you still think that accidents of time and place and birth don’t matter all that much, here are the birth-days of the three other founders of Sun Microsystems: Scott McNealy: November 13, 1954, Vinod Khosla: January 28, 1955, Andy Bechtolsheim: September 30, 1955” (Gladwell 68). To further reinforce the key points of his argument, Gladwell uses multiple examples. As a result of using numerous examples and references, Gladwell is able to further reinforce as well as validate his argument. By using more than one piece of evidence, Gladwell can prove to his readers that what he is arguing is clearly evident in many instances. Furthermore, multiple examples proves to readers that what Gladwell is referring to is not just a one time occurrence. Ultimately, Gladwell brilliantly chooses his examples to benefit the credibility of his
“A statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample” (Gladwell 3) or in other words an outlier. In the novel Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell holds one of the many secrets to life, the secret to success. Gladwell takes one’s thoughts on an astonishing journey to reveal the keys to success, their patterns, and how to achieve it.
We all understand what success is, but what allows for a person to become successful? Malcolm Gladwell wrote his book Outliers to study this topic and settle once and for all why some people are more successful than others. Gladwell uses the success stories of people throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to discover just exactly what it is that allows for one to be successful. He explains that there is much more to becoming successful than just natural talent and skill. Gladwell states in Outliers that success is the product of the time we were born, our dedication, and most of all where we come from.
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
Rhodes, A. E., Lin, E., & Streiner, D. L. (1999). Confronting the confounders: the meaning,
Kevin Clarke, Gary Lee, and I illustrated great courage and an ability to face the challenge of reading and writing adversities, through different, creative, and proactive ways. The benefits of facing one’s adversity in reading and writing are better communication, understanding and providing directions, being informed, safeguarding against being taken advantage of by others, and for the mere progression of life. In addition, a person cannot be believed simply for their words, thus reading is beneficial to ensure those words conveyed represent fact and truth. A last and important benefit of reading and writing is advancing in college to ensure securing a job, which allows one to establish a stable future and live above the poverty level. Therefore, my advice in overcoming adversity, is use the key of courage to unlock the bars, which imprison, step out of the cell by facing adversity, and redeem freedom through learning ways to overcome
The goal of this paper is to emphasize as well as decipher the multifarious activities Gladwell used to bring his points across in the concept of “The Theory of Thin-Slices: How a Little Bit of Knowledge Goes a Long Way." (Gladwell, 2007, pg.18) Thin- slicing, the ability to gather information in a split second, naturally, as in mind over matter or by conducting experiments, coming to a conclusion. Gladwell presents two types of illustrations of how thin slicing works: natural circumstances and controlled studies.
Gladwell makes you see how things can be pushed over the edge and blossom into trends, drops in crime rates or even outbreaks of diseases. The Tipping Point can happen at anytime within the right scenarios. Gladwell said “Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push — in just the right place — it can be tipped”. Gladwell did a lot of case studies to be able to make the claims that he did in his book.
Gladwell discusses a study done by Lewis Terman, a psychology professor at Stanford University. Based on IQ tests given to elementary school level students all around California, Terman selected the brightest students to track and analyze, These students were known as the “Termites.”
The popular saying “practice makes perfect” has been used for many years encouraging younger generations to strive for success in whatever area they wish to excel in. Success is something everybody in society strides for but some do not know how it is achieved. However, there are many people throughout history who are known for achieving success in many areas. Malcolm Gladwell, a best selling author and speaker, identifies these people as being outliers. Gladwell identifies the word “outlier” in his story Outliers as “a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience.” Although Malcolm Gladwell does not establish credibility for himself in his novel, his targeted audience of a younger inexperienced generation feel the need to be informed by his detailed theories about becoming successful and eventually becoming an outlier. Although the reality of becoming successful can depend on instances one can not control, Gladwell tells his readers there is a great portion they can control through his theory, the 10,000 hour rule. He does this by using well presented logical persuasive appeals and interesting rhetorical devices such as: onomatopeias, exposition, and argumentation.
If people work hard, focus, and are disciplined, they will succeed in the future. This has become a universal idea taught by parents, teachers, and peers. People have passed down this idea to the younger generations and they chose to live by this moral that makes sense. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell debunks the universal idea that working hard will allow people to play hard and get further in life. Gladwell eliminates the traditional ideas of success by showing that opportunities, family background, and being born at the “right” time are actually what lead to success.
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.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: the story of success. 2011. Reprint. New York: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Co., 2008. Print.