Book review: Outliers: The Story of Success

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a fascinating read, which is kind of Gladwell’s thing — I haven’t read “The Tipping Point” yet, but I did read “Blink,” and he’s certainly got a gift for surprising you with research. There were parts of this book that made me want to jump out of my chair in frustration, especially as the mother of a child who will be one of the “young ones” at school and potentially disadvantaged as a result for his entire life. I’d say the first half of this book has distinct policy and behavior implications that I certainly hope our new president is considering.

Then there are parts that are sort of … interesting, but not helpful. In some ways, Gladwell argues that the phenomenally successful are merely the recipients of a series of incredibly lucky coincidences related to timing, cultural heritage, ethnicity, and repeated strikes of happy coincidences. Plus, of course, a lot of really, really hard work.

So, it’s reassuring in one sense to know that the truly self-made success story is probably a myth. On the other hand, is it too late for those of us who might have been born in the wrong generation, who didn’t go to summer camp, and who didn’t have the right access to computers, charm, the textiles industry, or some other lucky happenstance? I guess only history will tell. Regardless, a good and pretty easy read that I definitely recommend.

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