Sometimes a book comes along that stops you in your tracks. Sometimes you are so compelled to read and to finish a book that all of your other commitments seem to melt away and disappear. Other times, however, you'll find yourself mildly entertained by a book but not really too engrossed by it. When 'Outliers: The Story of Success' was released by Malcolm Gladwell, I wondered which of these it would be. After reading it I can say that it is definitely the former.
The book is about success - what makes people successful and others not so successful. Gladwell argues that our genetic heritage and cultural legacy have much to do with how successful we are and argues his points brilliantly with mountains of examples and research. You get the feeling when reading 'Outliers' that you are learning about something quite revolutionary - something that is barely even accepted by most people yet, but something that will be very soon.
The level of detail that Gladwell has gone into in this book is quite astounding, and is surely the new benchmark for any aspiring writer or scientist. One example that he gives is all about why Korean pilots crash planes far more than any other race. His conclusion is quite brilliant (and backed up with evidence), yet it is one that you might feel that a lot of people would find difficult to accept (because he is stereotyping people by their race). At the end of the book Gladwell talks about how we must first understand our cultural legacy in order to change it, by which point of the book I felt extremely uplifted.
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