Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Although the premise of this book – pointing out that those of us who have “made something of ourselves” do not arrive at their positions solely through their own hard work and determination – sounds completely revolutionary, I came to realize that I didn’t really believe that in the first place. I think we all know deep down inside that the time and place of our birth, the circumstances into which we are born (financial, cultural, etc) as well as plain dumb luck are involved in how far we may go in life.
One of the most interesting “discoveries” for me in this book was the point that it seems to take about 10,000 hours of practice to truly master any skill. Whether it’s ice hockey, computer programming or piloting an aircraft these things all require study and practice to get it right and to rise to the level of mastering that skill. The author points out that, although many of the people profiled in the book were born into circumstances that gave them a head-start, it was the drive, ability and availability to spend great amounts of time focusing on their particular skill that allowed them to achieve. Like many of the other reviewers, this is one of the main points that I’ll take away from the book.
I would recommend Outliers to just about anyone. There are certainly many “ah-hah” moments in the text that kept me interested and thinking.