Jacob’s Notes 001
Outliers: The Story of Success
By: Malcolm Gladwell
In the book, the author questions why some individuals succeed and live impactful lives while others never reach their full potential. He will challenge the popular view of a self-made man along the way. In my review, I will touch briefly on 3 of my most important takeaways from the book.
1.) 10,000 Hours
In the book, Gladwell uses a psychology study to build on the idea that mastering a skill takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice. In addition, Gladwell uses numerous examples in the book, such as The Beatles, Bill Gates, & Mozart.
For years, the Beatles played in Germany at strip clubs for eight hours a day, seven days a week. Bill gates had been programming 20-30 hours weekly in high school, 52 weeks a year, for years. Mozart was 21 years old by the time he composed his first masterwork. However, he had been writing since he was about ten years old.
2.) Unique opportunities
One of the best examples of a unique opportunity is Bill Gates. He attended a private school in Seattle with a computer club that offered students access to a time-shared computer. That was something the majority of colleges didn’t have yet. So, as a high schooler, Bill Gates had a unique opportunity.
Dedication is required, but you must catch some breaks along the way. In the book, Malcolm Gladwell outlines nine different special opportunities that likely contributed to Bill Gates’ success.
3.) Where you come from matters
Gladwell cites another psychology experiment that tracked hundreds of children with genius-level IQs for decades. Contrary to the researcher’s expectations, not all children were doctors and lawyers. Instead, the majority of the people were average. Others, by all measures of success, were failures despite having a genius IQ.
I recommend reading the book if you have interest in hearing more details about some of these examples. Of course, the book covers so much more than I could ever include here, but these were my three most important takeaways.
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From the bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia, learn what sets high achievers apart—from Bill Gates to the Beatles—in this seminal work from “a singular talent”
(New York Times Book Review).
Jacob Strusa 