Author: impromptuz

每個學年都會踏足紐約好幾次。
當是a breath of fresh air也好，當是escape from reality也好，乘4個小時的Chinatown旅遊巴一心想把憂慮暫時拋諸腦後，在紐約街頭呼一口混濁卻somehow refreshing的空氣。

好友到Columbia修讀碩土，這次旅程終於不用誤打誤撞。遊覽第五間Ivy League大學，品味極佳的午餐晚餐，Black Friday凌晨到Macy’s下午到SoHo購物，總之來了7次仍然不乏新鮮事。比較特別的是，這幾天結伴同遊不只是兩位舊同學，而是一行十人，十位fairly loosely connected的香港人。他們各有各理由出現在這個random combination裡面，副有幾個共通點 ：同年齡，香港傳統名校出身，well off，一半都是Ivy Leaguers。如果要畫一個social network graph還真不得了。

對我而言，是難度不低的social experience。話題內容不是一般的八卦，而是一支古巴雪茄要在甚麼濕度放多久才最香醇，混過甚麼甚麼shots，誰和誰喝得爛醉被iPhone拍下來互相依偎好搞笑。吃完晚飯不是吃糖水，而是圍個圈煲煙。可能你會很驚訝，你唔係依家先知外國d college係咁架下話? Well I know，但我習慣的social interactions比較清純，玩玩大富翁，唱下k就可以了。Anyway as 920 said, it’s a good change of scenery to hang out with fun people who lead different lifestyles for once in a while.

最後我隨便問問這頭髮gel到行的雪茄男近況，他喝一口Corona傻笑：
“我失業，上個月都唔係，唔知點解比人炒左哈哈哈。”

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.