Well, Malcolm Gladwell, after his "Tipping point" and "Blink" has reached a certain stage from where one can't ignore his books. And so definitely one picks up "Outliers" to see what is new this time.
His subject is that of "successful people" and how a host of environmental factors have had a great role to play in the success and not individualism per se. In other words "right time and right place" are almost as crucial as talent in separating the successful from the not so successful.
Outliers starts with the Canadian hockey team and shows how the date of birth affects selection and consequent chances of being picked for the highest versions of the game. Then for sheer talent, he supports the "10,000 hour" rule which is quite popular these days in telling that 10,000 hours of practise of any skill makes you talented in it. What the book says is that because of the environmental factors (family, Geo-political conditions, Technological changes) successful people got to practise these 10,000 hours in their skill while the others where not so lucky.
To support this, he goes to on to explain the early lives of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Bill Joy and the Beatles were subject to this 10,000 hour rule. And he continues with the detailed analysis of the life of Joe Flom, a successful lawyer.
After this, the book takes a slight detour to example how conditions affected the life of immigrants in early US and how despite the early struggles, the period really set in a base for the fortune of the coming generations. From the US immigrants, the book proceeds to the rice fields of China to explain how rice cultivation helps Chinese in mathematics. Good stuff, especially the rice cultivation stuff. Towards the end is the explanation of the success of a popular "Jamaican" author !!
All in all, the book surely makes you think about how important are the external factors in shaping a person. Sure enough the book states that people had innate talent and skills; but it is the environment that enabled the talent to shine. The example of Chris Langan vs. Einstein tries to show that after a point IQ stops mattering and it is circumstances and choices that determine the outcome. Of course, many things in the books may sound controversial to people who believe in the self-made person theory. Nevertheless, the book is a good starting point even for those people to think in broader terms. As for the writing, of course the book is a breezy quick read and never gets boring.
To just bring in the connection to investing, doesn't this book explain what the great Warren Buffett has been talking about these days. He says he was lucky to be born to a good family, started reading early, practising his stuff, rejecting what he did not work for him, was taught investing by Benjamin Graham and so on. No one doubts his "internal wiring" for investing but after that wasn't it the environment that played a great role ? Warren himself thinks so and accepts that (so does Bill Gates in this book).
Of course questions remain? Why did all the people born in the same era as Bill Gates not succeed? What explains the sheer talent of so many people who did not have formal training in subjects (The great mathematician S. Ramanujan, for example). Anyways, Go ahead and pick this one. It is a good starting point of thinking about success from a a broader point of view.
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