Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers Analysis

Words: 1149
Pages: 5
Open Document
Outliers, a 2008 book by Malcolm Gladwell, focuses on what he calls "outliers," a term used in statistics to describe a data point "that lies an abnormal distance from other values in a random sample from a population." (National Institute of Standards) Gladwell applies this concept to understanding human outliers, people whose achievements appear extraordinary in some way. ("Q and A") In Outliers, Gladwell attempts to understand the causes of extraordinary achievements or successes, arguing that they are caused by environment, serendipity, and hard work rather than innate characteristics such as "genius" or "talent." This paper will focus on the third and fourth chapters of Outliers, "The Trouble With Geniuses (Part 1)" and "The Trouble With …show more content…
Terman, who was a proponent of the notion that IQ was inheritable and who was also associated with the controversial eugenics movement, followed some 1,500 children with high IQs throughout their lives, hoping to correlate IQ with success. Instead, as Gladwell points out, the results of the study show that there appears to be an intelligence threshold for success, but no correlation of degree of success with intelligence beyond that threshold.
In the next chapter, Gladwell focuses on individual cases, showing that what matters is being “smart enough” and that beyond that, IQ points are less important to success than other factors. He chooses as examples Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. While Langan has one of the highest IQs recorded since the test was developed, he was considerably less successful in his life than the distinguished physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who actually had a lower IQ as measured by standardized tests. Gladwell emphasizes that part of the difference between these two men was environment, with Oppenheimer coming from a wealthy family that nurtured his talents and Langan from an impoverished and abusive environment. Gladwell cites work by sociologist Annette Lareau on the differences in parenting styles across the socio-economic spectrum and argues that this is an important factor in the relative success of Oppenheimer and lack of success of
Show More

Related Documents: Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers Analysis

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson Analysis

chosen two authors who catch my attention both in the mainstream and academic fields: Malcolm Gladwell and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. Gladwell has written several books including, Outliers: The Story of Success (2008) and Garland-Thomson is a Critical Disability academic who wrote Disability, Identity, and Representation: An Introduction (2009) among many other such publications. What I find attractive about Gladwell’s style is his intentions are clear, he weaves a story that draws us in, and finally…

Words 462 - Pages 2

Malcolm Gladwell Reflection

In this course you really have to think. From the start, reading different chapters in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, and analyzing them requires critical thinking. Gladwell is such a prolific and convincing writer that you almost “fall” for his arguments. You really have to mull over his chapters. The textbooks, Weston’s Rulebook for Arguments and…

Words 1012 - Pages 5

Essay on getting lucky

the popular book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: Attacking luck has never been more fashionable. No matter how flimsy the science behind the theory, popularized by author Malcolm Gladwell, that success must follow from 10,000 hours of dedicated practice, it has hardened into folklore. Outliers is best known for Gladwell’s observation that it’s this magic number of hours of practice that makes the difference for those who are most successful. But that’s only part of Gladwell’s message, and people…

Words 7456 - Pages 30