Outliers Malcolm Gladwell Essay

Words: 729
Pages: 3

“Is culture a positive or negative influence on people?” In the second half of “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell mainly focuses on the importance of the culture in our lives and how it can positively and negatively affect people in all life aspects. Chapter 7 mainly is about how a slight cultural habit can drastically affect a whole situation. Gladwell demonstrated his idea through examples of airplane crashes; he specifically chose this situation because all people are under stress, which means that they just act instantly without faking their actions, reflecting their own real culture. First of all, he talked about a flight that was considered successful because of the fact that all those in control communicated correctly together and overcame …show more content…
However, by the end of the chapter, I realized that part of our Egyptian culture is somehow similar to an extent. We, as Egyptians, are known for a phenomenon called “Faty”. There was that program called “Argok Ma Teftesh” which showed how Egyptians make up information and respond to ridicules made up questions only for the sake of “Faty”. For instance, the interviewer asked a random man in the streets: what causes the lack of oxygen in Egypt? The man was like” Umm..It’s mainly the government’s problem”. Government? Oxygen? I think the man lives in the “Lala Land” but not in our real world. In fact, the man’s response shows how he just wants to seem literate even though he doesn’t get the question. Do you think that this Egyptian phenomenon can affect people negatively? Imagine with me that a student asked a friend to help him solve a mathematical equation; that friend doesn’t understand the question but he just made up an answer. He did not care about his friend’s grades because his main goal was to give an answer and show off in the time being. So yeah if you think about it, you’ll find out that making up facts and information which is part of our culture is not a thing that we should be proud of because it can ruin others’