Outliers

** Outliers    **   **By Malcolm Gladwell  Published:    November 18, 2008 Genre:  Non-Fiction (Psychology, Sociology) **

    **The book "Outliers" is about all of the factors that can contribute to a person's success. Many people believe that when a person is successful, it is only because they are intelligence or have a lot of ambition to work towards what they want. However, throughout his book, Malcolm Gladwell argues that the true reason of a person's success is very different, and that if you want to understand how some people thrive, you should look at things such as their family, their birthplace, or even their birthdate. Some of the topics that are explained in this book are what the Beatles and Bill Gates have in common, the amazing success of Asians at math, the hidden advantages of star athletes, why all top New York lawyers have the same resume, and the reason that you have never heard of the world's smartest man. Gladwell also discusses why most Canadian hockey stars are born in the first few months of the year, and how two people with extraordinary intelligence end up with entirely different fortunes. He eventually shows that the lives of outliers, the people who achieve things that fall outside normal experience, tend to follow a peculiar and unexpected logic. Gladwell presents a fascinating blueprint for making the most of human potential.**
 * Summary: **

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: #305f41; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 120%; color: #31593a; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">** About the Author  ** <span style="font-size: 120%; color: #364e8c; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">  Malcolm Gladwell is the author of the number one international bestsellers "The Tipping Point," "Blink," and "Outliers." He was born on September 3, 1963 in the United Kingdom. His father is a civil engineering professor at the University of Waterloo and his mother is a Jamaican born psychotherapist. Gladwell has actually said that his mother is his role model as a writer. Though he was born in the United Kingdom, he was raised in Canada. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto's Trinity College in 1984. While he was in high school, Gladwell was an outstanding middle distance runner and actually won the 1500m Midget Boys title at the 1978 Ontario High School championships. Gladwell began his writing career in 1987 at //The American Spectator//. From 1987 to 1996, he was a science writer, but later became the New York bureau chief for The Washington Post. Currently, he is working as a staff writer for The New Yorker, where his two books, "The Tipping Point" and "Blink" were substantially serialized.

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 130%; color: #2f6553; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">** Style ** <span style="font-size: 110%; color: #32488b; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">**<span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Malcolm Gladwell had a very sophisticated style. He would used a high level of vocabulary throughout the entire book. Also, the book began with an introduction and ended with an epilogue. Though some of the chapters varied, the majority of them were about the length. The book was made up of two parts, part one was opportunity and part two was legacy. Gladwell's writing consisted of both long and short sentences. Sometimes, Gladwell would challenge the reader with questions concerning the topic that is being discussed in the chapter. There were times when Gladwell would come right out and tell the reader what a chapter was about and what he was trying to prove. Gladwell also included many charts and a few diagrams inside the chapters in order to give his reader a visual aid, which would help to better understand what was being discussed. Sometimes there would be a star shaped icon at the end of a sentence, which would reference you to the bottom of that page where Gladwell would expand on a specific topic. In the very back of "Outliers," Gladwell also included notes, acknowledgments, and an index. **

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: #32488b; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">**Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers," is very well written and an intersting read. I usually do not read many non-fiction books because they tend to bore me, however, this one was fairly enjoyable. A book all about success and the reasons for it did not sound very interesting to me, but I am glad that I read it. Gladwell finds different patterns in the success of specific groups of people that I never would have realized without reading this book. All in all, I am glad that I decided to read this book and I recomend it to anyone that wants to view a person's success in a new and different way.**
 * <span style="font-size: 120%; color: #2d5c3a; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 140%; color: #254130; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Personal Assessment **

<span style="font-size: 150%; color: #28432e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">** Critical Assessment ** <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">  **<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Editorial review from Amazon.com: Now that he's gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions**       <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in //Outliers//: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."

<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots' culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there's more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples--and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps--Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. --Mari Malcolm

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 * <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">For more information on Malcolm Gladwell and his other works go to **[|**http://www.gladwell.com/index/html**]<span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">**.