Applying Gladwell's "Outliers"
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Gladwell takes the time to view things from a different point of view.
- EXPERIENCE. There is no such thing as a hockey natural. The best players just happened to be born early in the year (Gladwell, 15).
- PRACTICE. The Beatles were successful because they spent hours and hours playing in clubs in Hamburg. The practice allowed them to perfect their sound (Gladwell, 35).
- PRACTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Geniuses don't normally produce for society unless they are shepparded along - or know how to sheppard themselves along (Gladwell, 91).
- LEGACY. Southerners are more likely to take offense because of their Scottish heritage (Gladwell, 161).
- SURVIVAL. Certain villages in Asian countries had to continuously work 360 days a year in order to survive and prosper. Certain villages in Belgium took the winter off. It ends up that the Asians are better at math because they are more persistent. It's cultural.
On first read, I didn't like some of Gladwell's observations. They felt, let's see, racist, perhaps, or observant of things that I am not comfortable with. When you are done reading the book, however, you realize you could have been Bill Gates, if only - if only - you had had ten thousand hours to fiddle with a computer program before you were twenty. You'd be rich and famous, as well. [Interesting side-bar: Gates isn't the richest person in history. John D. Rockefeller had $318.3 billion dollars; Cleopatra had $95.8; Gates had $58 billion at the peak (Gladwell, 56).]
All this is nice. It certainly can cause you to be envious if you allow it to. However, how do we help folks succeed better.
- Want to be better at math? Work more hours practicing math. If you have kids, encouraging them to turn off the TV and turn on to studying makes a lot of sense.
- Driving your kid all over the place to practices and events makes sense, especially during the summer. Languishing in front of the TV keeps a kid's IQ level. Practicing all summer in all sorts of ways makes him smarter (Gladwell, 258).
The facts are known. We can choose to do nothing or we can shake things up. Provide opportunity to all kids to do stuff at the opportune times and they perform better. The crucial word here is "all". Everyone, if they got a chance, would perform better. Regular kids and smart kids. Regular kids and physically perfect kids. Give them more advantages and they perform better.
Don't waste kids. Give them opportunities.
Don't waste employees. Don't let them languish. Give them opportunities to completely engage over their full work experience, get better performance. It's simple.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. The Story of Success. Little, Brown and Company. 2008.