OUTLIERS- By Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Timothy Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, author and public speaker. He is the
author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the
Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio
content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things
both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce
Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. 

The book 'Outlier' is truly a master piece. Gladwell has used the word Outlier with more
metaphorical flexibility. For him, an outlier is a truly exceptional individual who, in his or her
field of expertise, is so superior that he defines his own category of success. He starts with a
tale of individual greatness, about the Beatles or the titans of Silicon Valley or the
enormously successful generation of New York Jews born in the early 20th century. Then he
adds details that undercut that tale. 

Gladwell’s message in this book is that of hope for all of us. Some of the valuable lessons
found I the book are:

1. Almost anybody can make it with enough practice (” The 10,000 Hour Rule”)

In a study of violinists, players were placed in three groups: Group A, those who were judged
to have the potential to become world-class players; Group B, those who were judged to be
“good”; and Group C, those who were unlikely to play professionally and would end up as
public school music teachers.
When asked a single question, the difference was revealed. How many hours have you
practiced over your whole career? 
While all started at roughly the same age and playing the same amount. As they grew, those
in group A increased their practice time from 8 hours a week, to 12, to 20, to well over 30
hours a week. Those in the other groups did not practice as much. Predictably, there were less
practice hours in Group C than in Group B. All totalled, those in Group A had practiced
roughly 10,000 hours. And this pattern holds true for computer programmers like Bill Gates,
and many others.
2. A threshold level of intelligence is plenty to be successful
Gladwell discusses how there is a point where increases in IQ no longer translate into
increased real-world success. After about 120 IQ points, more IQ doesn’t help you become
more successful. He makes a comparison (among many others) between Chris Langan, whom
you’ve doubtfully heard of, with an IQ of 195, while Albert Einstein had an IQ of 150. (The
average person has an IQ of 100, although this is changing.) The point is that after 120 IQ
points, other character traits start becoming more important. Being a charismatic and likable
person becomes more important, in the real world, than further increases in IQ.
It is also important to remember that IQ is not a measure of everything. For instance, it does
not measure creativity, a trait that is crucially important in this world. Einstein’s insights into
special relativity came not just from careful analytical thought, but through creative
visualizations of the world and thought-experiments.
3. Growing up with a hard-knock life can be liberating
If you grew up in a poorer environment, but your parents were doing meaningful work, i.e.
their increased efforts paid off with increased success, you will have learned a valuable
lesson.
More work will result in more success, eventually.
This lesson, however, is hard to learn if you and/or your parents have been in a pattern of
very low-level work where no other work experience can be gained, and there is no
opportunity to learn more or move up within a company.
Outliers has been described as a form of autobiography, as Gladwell mixes in elements from
his own life into the book to give it a more personal touch. While Gladwell acknowledges his
mother's ambition and intelligence, he also points out opportunities offered to his parents that
helped them live a life better than those of other slave descendants in the West Indies.
Gladwell also explains that, in the 18th century, a white plantation owner in Jamaica bought a
female slave and made her his mistress. This act inadvertently saved the slave and her
offspring from a life of brutal servitude. As one of the slave's descendants, this turn of luck
led to Gladwell's relatively successful position in life. Summarizing the publication, Gladwell
notes that success "is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages
and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky”, and at the
end of the book, he remarks, "Outliers wasn't intended as autobiography. But you could read
it as an extended apology for my success."