I would like to put Gladwell in the same category as Jared Diamond - he writes books that take you on an enjoyable sweep through different places and eras and whole swathes of pop-anthropology but, deep down, I have to wonder *why* he picked a story about dental statistics in 1930s Luxembourg, or the rate of unexplained bus crashes in Peru versus Chile. I can never quite rule out a suspicion of cherry-picking. Which is uncomfortable, because I really *want* to believe these neat stories that let you in on a little secret that underpins whole swathes of the modern world.
Let's go back to a specific example. For instance, Gladwell points out the role of culture in airliner crashes; if aircrew come from cultures that have stronger deference to social superiors, maybe a copilot would shy away from challenging a pilot who'd made a mistake. He works through examples of Korean Airlines crashes that seem to fit this paradigm, and Korea is high up the ranking of countries by deference-to-superiors, and we hear about how Korean Airlines challenged that culture and then had fewer crashes. That's a good story to read! Problem is that we never really tackle the fact that the deadliest airline crash in history involved aircrew from a country which was at the opposite end of the ranking-of-countries. No doubt individual deference to superiors was a factor in that crash too, but CRM alone is pretty boring, people enjoy reading the different-places-different-cultures stories.
I won't say it's all like this; I didn't get such a worry from the study of the backgrounds of lawyers in New York, for instance (maybe we'd see something different if somebody took on the Herculean task of expanding the study to different trades & different national backgrounds, but I don't think the main conclusion would shift much).
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and Return policy Outliers: The Story of Success Paperback – 7 June 2011
by
Malcolm Gladwell
(Author)
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Learn what sets high achievers apart--from Bill Gates to the Beatles--in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review). In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication date7 June 2011
- ISBN-100316017930
- ISBN-13978-0316017930
- Lexile measure1080L
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Product description
Review
In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today...Outliers is a pleasure to read and leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward.--David Leonhardt, New York Times Book Review
No other book I read this year combines such a distinctive prose style with truly thought-provoking content. Gladwell writes with a high degree of dazzle but at the same time remains as clear and direct as even Strunk or White could hope for.--Atlanta Journal Constitution
The explosively entertaining Outliers might be Gladwell's best and most useful work yet...There are both brilliant yarns and life lessons here: Outliers is riveting science, self-help, and entertainment, all in one book.--Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly
No other book I read this year combines such a distinctive prose style with truly thought-provoking content. Gladwell writes with a high degree of dazzle but at the same time remains as clear and direct as even Strunk or White could hope for.--Atlanta Journal Constitution
The explosively entertaining Outliers might be Gladwell's best and most useful work yet...There are both brilliant yarns and life lessons here: Outliers is riveting science, self-help, and entertainment, all in one book.--Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly
About the Author
Malcolm Gladwell 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. Gladwell has been included in the Time 100 Most Influential People list and touted as one of Foreign Policy'sTop Global Thinke
Product details
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316017930
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316017930
- Best Sellers Rank: 2,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 16 in Communication Guides
- 21 in Sociology
- 25 in Personal Finance
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from other countries

bobrayner
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable read but scientifically it makes me feel uneasy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 February 2020Verified Purchase
7 people found this helpful
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Paul Walsh
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully interesting, easy to read, amazing findings
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 September 2018Verified Purchase
Brilliant book for exemplifying patterns in human behaviour. I am not reading it in order to look at improving the odds of success in life - not as a sociologist or psychologist.....and I find it very gripping and the evidence against the examples is brilliant. I take each chapter as a chapter of learning but the sort of learning which implants itself in your mind instead of needing to try and take it all in. It is written in a way that the knowledge provided naturally settles in your mind. Would highly recommend to anyone who is looking at success, improving odds, running a business, psychology, sociology
12 people found this helpful
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GoldenHen
2.0 out of 5 stars
Over-hyped Book with a Lack of Convincing Conclusions
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 August 2014Verified Purchase
To be honest, I still don't get the point of this book. Chapter after chapter, the same statement is made, that success in life is more to do with where you come from than with anything else. So what? Are we supposed to become all defaitist about this now, as we cannot really influence our fate in life? As so often in american books of this type, it is dense in quoting from all sorts of random research, which makes it at times tiring to read. Anecdotes that may or may not be convincing provide for some more relaxed reading, but the author's conclusions (if any) are often not convincing. So the Chinese are better at maths because they have an easier system of naming their numbers? And why does that then all of a sudden apply to all Asians, even though not all Asian languages share the same feature?
I just don't see what the hype about this book is about.
I just don't see what the hype about this book is about.
45 people found this helpful
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Regan Cipher
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth a read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2022Verified Purchase
Malcolm Gladwell has a storytelling style that makes for compelling reading, albeit based around 'one big idea', in this instance 'grit'.
Gladwell's argument, that success can be attributed to a combination of opportunity, 'right place, right time' and hard work, is underpinned by the notion that culture plays a pivotal role in the relationship between those variables and tangible success, and is woven into examples ranging from the Beatles to Bill Gates.
It is pretty one-sided, as is often the case these days with non-fiction, because, as David Epstein argues in Range, for every Tiger there is also a Roger, but Gladwell is fairly open to admitting this in interviews, which is why I take his books for what they are: one side of the story, creatively written to ensure the reader enjoys what they're reading.
The only real disappointment is the bizarre skew towards arguing the case for charter schools, which takes up a disproportionate section of the book, and is a little spurious in some of the observations and statistical analysis. Otherwise, an enjoyable read.
Gladwell's argument, that success can be attributed to a combination of opportunity, 'right place, right time' and hard work, is underpinned by the notion that culture plays a pivotal role in the relationship between those variables and tangible success, and is woven into examples ranging from the Beatles to Bill Gates.
It is pretty one-sided, as is often the case these days with non-fiction, because, as David Epstein argues in Range, for every Tiger there is also a Roger, but Gladwell is fairly open to admitting this in interviews, which is why I take his books for what they are: one side of the story, creatively written to ensure the reader enjoys what they're reading.
The only real disappointment is the bizarre skew towards arguing the case for charter schools, which takes up a disproportionate section of the book, and is a little spurious in some of the observations and statistical analysis. Otherwise, an enjoyable read.
One person found this helpful
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Special
4.0 out of 5 stars
Malcolm Gladwell Always Seems To Get It Right
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2022Verified Purchase
I got this book on recommendation. I have read other Gladwell books so expected it to be a good read. It just confirms what most people think deep down, when opportunity meets hard work you win. Separately neither of these two things will guarantee you success.
I think particularly coaches are aware of this phenomenon. This book is good for anyone, at any age, but the younger you understand this principal the better. Definitely a good read for parents of young children.
I think particularly coaches are aware of this phenomenon. This book is good for anyone, at any age, but the younger you understand this principal the better. Definitely a good read for parents of young children.