Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

286 pages -Trade paperback (Non-Fiction)


A few months ago I read Blink by Gladwell and got sucked right into the book. I used some of the info in the book as evidence to support my Masters Research Project. My wife had suggested reading his other book The Tipping Point. This Christmas I saw Outliers at the bookstore and bought it for her. A teacher in my Masters Cohort suggested that I read this as well. So I took the book from my wife before she had a chance to read it and quickly tore through it in 5 days.

Gladwell focuses on the belief in America that talent, hard work and intelligence will allow you to be successful. The book takes that view and says that it isn’t as important as we might think. Where a person comes from, when they are born and what their cultural past is may have more to do with it than anything else. He looks at how birthdates of hockey players in Canada seem to lend success to those born closest to the Jan 1st cutoff date. He shows how many of the greatest entrepreneurs of the industrial age were all born within a few years of each other. Many of the most influential people in the computer revolution were born in the mid 1950s. Planes crashes were more predictable based on the ethnicity of the flight crew.

Gladwell’s writing is very easy to read. Even though it is filled with dates, facts and numbers he writes in a way that keeps me interested. I actually started reading this at 10 pm and read 70 pages before I knew it. I read every chance I had until I finished just a few days later. I have another well read friend that enjoys Gladwell’s books but did caution me. Apparently, he is known for only telling one side of the story. While reading this book I did notice that the evidence really supports the point he is trying to get across, but there isn’t much information regarding things that does not support his main point.

If I were to compare it to Blink I found it lacking a bit, but it had more to do with subject matter. The main premise of this book is that no person is a success on their own. Hard work, intelligence and talent are important to any success story, but their upbringing, social standing, parenting, culture and luck all play an important role as well. I think that I already held this belief already so it wasn’t as eye-opening as Blink. It does do a great job of supporting things that I already believed.

4 Emotional/Intellectual – Outliers really shows how success is made through a variety of factors, not necessarily what we assume to be needed.

4 Style/Readability – Gladwell has a way of taking seemingly boring things like dates, facts and numbers and makes it engaging and easy to digest.

3 Long Term Impact – Gladwell is making a name for himself with books that challenge traditional thinking. Although Outliers may not get as much attention as his other books his popularity will keep interest in his books for years to come.

11 out of 13. I found this book to be really worthwhile. It may or may not interest you, but I think this and other books by Gladwell may be best summed up by paraphrasing this old adage: Don’t judge a book by its subject.
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