Outliers: The Story of Success

Author: Malcolm Gladwell, Rating:3.5/5

    This book is a very easy and interesting read. Author discusses about the factors which are overlooked while explaining certain phenomenon be it of success or failure. Lack of these explanations make things stand out as outliers. "Outliers" is a statistical term for any data point that does not fit the pattern. Author, through several examples, points out that the outliers in reality are not outliers.
If we dig deep we will find reason/s or a pattern. Bottom line is that the reason behind anyone's success or failure is not just innate talent or lack of it, but practice (or lack of it), getting the right opportunity at the right time (or not getting it), having (or not having) the freedom to seize the opportunity. 

    Author starts of with a very interesting story about the immigrants from Roseto, Italy to a place in Pennsylvania (which later came to be known as Roseto, PA). It was seen that those people had almost a negligible level of heart problems, even after the age of 60. It was found out that it was not because of their better eating habits, a regular exercise schedule or superior genes etc. But it was because of a close knit group of family and friends who acted as a cushion for all their tensions. Having less tension made them healthier.

    Some of the interesting examples were that of a) hockey players having birthdays just after the cut off date to make the list for the league, had a better win record. This was because of a well developed body as compared to a younger one in the league. It has been seen in other team sports as well. b) Banking too much on the IQ is not the right approach. IQ does not matter after a threshold. Also, IQ may not even be the right measure after all. It might be good to test the general understanding level but it may not test one's creative capabilities. c) Plane crashes happen not because of the incompetency of the pilots rather it is because of the fatigue, command structure that the pilot, co-pilot and the other staff has to follow and lack of communication. d) Reasons for poor kids not performing well, as pointed out by the author, is because of the longer summer vacation. He says the poor kids perform well or at least as good as rich kids when the school is in session but because they do not have means to spend their summer vacation properly, honing their skills, they fall back when the school reopens. e) Students from families who have been involved in hard physical labor tend to be more perseverant. Some of the other ideas are not that new. But overall the author, through the book, is asking people to look beyond the obvious.