Outliers Book Review

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  • Topic: Albert Einstein, Malcolm Gladwell, Blink
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  • Published : March 28, 2013
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Francisco Ayala
May 9, 2012
English 101
Malcolm Gladwell is a speaker, bestselling author, and Canadian journalist. He is a writer for the New Yorker since 1996. Gladwell has four New York Times bestseller books he has written. Among one of those books is Outliers: The story of success (2008). Outlier, a nonfiction book, had to do with social psychology. Outlier is about the success of people who do not fit into our normal understanding of achievement. Gladwell points out that many people could be giving the same opportunity but it all comes down to early opportunity and privileged social standing are what really makes an Outlier. Gladwell does a really good job on breaking down the story of success of some Outliers. He goes in detail in how some Canadian hockey players make it have it easier than others, how Bill Gates is who he is today and the genius Christopher Largan failure to become an Outlier.

In Outliers, Gladwell wants to convince the reader that people don't just rise from nothing to be successful. Success comes from parentage and patronage. It also comes down to when and where you grew up. First example Gladwell gives is explaining how some Canadian hockey players become better than others. Gladwell research shows there’s an uneven number of elite Canadian hockey players. Players that are born in the first few months, January, February and March, of the calendar are more likely to be successful than those born in the last month of the year. Statistics showed players born in January, February, and March are most likely to be in the hockey traveling team. The reason for this was because in Canada, the eligibility cut-off for age class hockey is January 1. Someone born in January 2 has bigger physical maturity than someone born in November. Those with bigger maturity get chosen to join the elite team. They get provided with better coaching, better teammates and more games than those who were left behind. It is why most likely they are...
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