Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

reviewed by Jim Tidd

Outliers are extraordinarily successful people. How did they do it? How much of it was talent? How much of it was intelligence? What about hard work? Gladwell has some interesting answers to these questions.

Consider the top Canadian hockey players. Most of them were born in January, February, or March. Why? Because the cutoff date for selection into the next higher level team is January 1st. A kid born on January 2 is almost a year older than a kid born Dec. 31, so he is going to play better hockey. He may not have more native talent, but he gets promoted, plays with better players, gets better coaching, and more ice time. This selection occurs every year starting at age six, and he has that same advantage every year. By the time he's a young adult, he's a better player than his younger counterpart, permanently.

To catch the PC wave, you needed to be born about 1955. Like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Scott McNealy. The key PC event was the announcement of Altair computer kit. You needed to be old enough to know what to do with it, to be able to afford it, but not already graduated from college and absorbed into the IBM workforce and family life.

10,000 hours is a magic number. By the time their opportunities came along, people like Gates and the Beatles already had their 10000 hours into what they were doing.

There is a concept called "smart enough". To work in theoretical physics, you need an I.Q. of at least 120, but beyond that it doesn't matter much. Einstein was 150. Many unknown scientists have I.Q.s well over that. So the "gifted" programs in schools are bogus because they focus on I.Q.

It's an interesting book.