Outliers - The story of success
-- By Malcolm Gladwell
(Score - 8.5/10)
(Score - 8.5/10)
In his indomitable style, the author argues that success is rarely about the way it is portrayed in biographies or on TV - which is that a driven individual self-made his destiny and riches. Success is more about how opportunities came by, the social setting, cultural heritage and of course, the ability of the individual to be motivated to take opportunities that come his or her way.
The story starts at a small town of Roseto (Pennsylvania, USA), inhabited exclusively by immigrants who originally came from a single small town in Italy. Almost no one in this town below the age of 65 had heart disease. This was surprising in the USA of the day, and a physician called Wolf started to dig in further to investigate. After ruling out diet, genetics, location and other such factors, Wolf realized that reason Roseto was an Outlier was because of Roseto itself. This was a town where the Rosetans visited each other, stopping to chat in the streets, cooking for one another, going to the same church and following an egalitarian approach where neither the wealthy flaunted their wealth, nor the poor were allowed to fail. Thus, not having heart diseases was nothing to do with the individual - it was about the culture of the place.
The author then moves to Canadian hockey league and proves that most players in the highest elite league were born between Jan-Mar. He goes on to show how the cut-off date of 1-Jan automatically biased the system to select kids who were born between Jan-Mar, since they were physically stronger than the others who were born later. Once selected for the league, these players then got extra training and extra practice, which ensured that they got to be the best. (It takes around 10000 hours of training to master any activity). The result was that even if the system was supposed to be meritocratic, in reality it was biased simply because of the cut-off date. This is the flaw of using an arbitrary cut-off date to determine merit selection. For example, if a school promotes kids to advanced classes based on the ability displayed as of a cut-off date, then invariable kids whose birth-date is closest to the cut-off date stand to gain an unfair advantage.
The author takes up various example, including how nationality of pilots is a good predictor of the probability of plane crashes. He explains this with a concept of PDR - Power Distance Ratio. In individualistic societies such as those of the West, PDR is low - i.e. subordinates are not afraid to present their points of views directly. In high PDR societies of the east, deference to authority is in-built in the culture. The implication is what in emergency situations, where the co-pilot of flight engineer should be clearly telling the Captain of any errors committed, the eastern culture people choose to give indirect hints rather than taking control - resulting in a higher probability of crashes.
The book also talks about the difference in parent styles between poor kids and rich kids. Whereas for poor kids, parents leave the kid to indulge in free play and make up games as they wish, the richer parents show a more direct involvement in the activities of the kid and make the kid aware of his or her entitlements. The result is that the kid is not afraid to ask questions of an authority, and take responsibility for his or her actions.
Finally, the author debunks the myth that Summer vacations are good or even essential. He does this by quoting a study where the California Aptitude Test CAT was administered to students at the start of the school term, at the end and then immediately after they came from Summer vacations. While there was not much difference in the scores at the start and end of the term between poor and rich kids, the rich kids clearly outscored the poor kids in tests when they returned from Summer vacations.This clearly shows that the rich kids kept learning even during summer vacations, possibly because their parents involved themselves much more in the learning process. The author points out that US Schooling has 180 days of school in a year, while Japanese schooling has 230+ days, allowing them to cover more and cover it at a leisurely pace, so that no kid is left behind - thus sustaining the kids interest in the studies.
The story starts at a small town of Roseto (Pennsylvania, USA), inhabited exclusively by immigrants who originally came from a single small town in Italy. Almost no one in this town below the age of 65 had heart disease. This was surprising in the USA of the day, and a physician called Wolf started to dig in further to investigate. After ruling out diet, genetics, location and other such factors, Wolf realized that reason Roseto was an Outlier was because of Roseto itself. This was a town where the Rosetans visited each other, stopping to chat in the streets, cooking for one another, going to the same church and following an egalitarian approach where neither the wealthy flaunted their wealth, nor the poor were allowed to fail. Thus, not having heart diseases was nothing to do with the individual - it was about the culture of the place.
The author then moves to Canadian hockey league and proves that most players in the highest elite league were born between Jan-Mar. He goes on to show how the cut-off date of 1-Jan automatically biased the system to select kids who were born between Jan-Mar, since they were physically stronger than the others who were born later. Once selected for the league, these players then got extra training and extra practice, which ensured that they got to be the best. (It takes around 10000 hours of training to master any activity). The result was that even if the system was supposed to be meritocratic, in reality it was biased simply because of the cut-off date. This is the flaw of using an arbitrary cut-off date to determine merit selection. For example, if a school promotes kids to advanced classes based on the ability displayed as of a cut-off date, then invariable kids whose birth-date is closest to the cut-off date stand to gain an unfair advantage.
The author takes up various example, including how nationality of pilots is a good predictor of the probability of plane crashes. He explains this with a concept of PDR - Power Distance Ratio. In individualistic societies such as those of the West, PDR is low - i.e. subordinates are not afraid to present their points of views directly. In high PDR societies of the east, deference to authority is in-built in the culture. The implication is what in emergency situations, where the co-pilot of flight engineer should be clearly telling the Captain of any errors committed, the eastern culture people choose to give indirect hints rather than taking control - resulting in a higher probability of crashes.
The book also talks about the difference in parent styles between poor kids and rich kids. Whereas for poor kids, parents leave the kid to indulge in free play and make up games as they wish, the richer parents show a more direct involvement in the activities of the kid and make the kid aware of his or her entitlements. The result is that the kid is not afraid to ask questions of an authority, and take responsibility for his or her actions.
Finally, the author debunks the myth that Summer vacations are good or even essential. He does this by quoting a study where the California Aptitude Test CAT was administered to students at the start of the school term, at the end and then immediately after they came from Summer vacations. While there was not much difference in the scores at the start and end of the term between poor and rich kids, the rich kids clearly outscored the poor kids in tests when they returned from Summer vacations.This clearly shows that the rich kids kept learning even during summer vacations, possibly because their parents involved themselves much more in the learning process. The author points out that US Schooling has 180 days of school in a year, while Japanese schooling has 230+ days, allowing them to cover more and cover it at a leisurely pace, so that no kid is left behind - thus sustaining the kids interest in the studies.
