Outliers

Rating: 1.5/5.0
Am reading this book by Malcolm Gladwell
I don’t care if it’s the #1 national bestseller
I want my money back.

He is trying to convince the readers that people don’t rise from nothing. Instead of asking what (intelligence, innate talents, ambition, passion, guts) makes an expert/outliers…ask how. In particular, success is facilitated by:

• A series of incredibly lucky events or accidental opportunities..
  i.e. “it just so happened that…..”
• Hidden advantage /cumulative advantage
  e.g. relative age in a kindergarten class
• Circumstances, surroundings, cultural legacies, parentage, networks……..
  —>that could allow him/her to work hard/prepare/improve until he/she could acquire mastery in a field. Otherwise, much individual potential is remain uncultivated in society.

Wait…but who doesn’t know it already?! I don’t have to be convinced.
It’s more like a ‘matter of fact’ to everyone that timing/luck is determining.
Why reiterate this obvious portion of success with bland examples from Bill Gates and other richest men on earth? *yawn*

His conclusion is, think twice on whether the successful people deserve the praise we give them. They may not deserve that much personal appreciation coz their achievements are largely determined by all these external factors (opportunities x legacies) as well. Well right, there are opportunities, but what differentiates them from normal ppl is also their sharp acumen to recognize the existence of such chances around…and their perseverance to take advantage of them wisely.

I am surprised this book on success didn’t even mention innovation, uniqueness and charisma at all. And how could he overlook the chain of failures and unfortunate events that makes a person a legend? Crisis handling? EQ? Dynamic revision?

Anyways…this topic on how-to-be-successful is just too conceptual and broad to be generalized into one exhaustive rule.

Maybe after all readings like 嘉亨灣的保安員 impress me more…ha.ha.ha.