Outliers Chunk 1: "People Don't Rise from Nothing"

Opening with the phenomena of Rosetans who had long life spans without the interruption of heart disease before the age of 65, Malcolm Gladwell does an amazing job-- in his bestselling novel Outliers-- at explaining how and who "the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are." In the first chapter Gladwell explains the "Matthew Effect," --taken from the concept of an excerpt from the bible-- to explain how hockey players, soccer players, and even gifted students are selected based on a misconception that they are better suited . Gadwell states that instead of being better at what they do, children born in the rather early months of the year tend to exceed a bit more as opposed to children born in the late months due to the extra amount of time they have had to develope, especially in the case of young athletes who at the ages of 10 and 11 are just hitting a vital stage in physical maturity. Over the course of a few years and a bit more time of practice the older child does in fact become better at whatever it is they are training for and an idea based on a faulty premise is proven correct. The second chapter was about the 10,000 hour rule. It sounds like quite a bit of time but it is in fact the key to perfecting any skill, like in the case of Bill Gates who was able to accumulate 10,000 hours of computer programming and start a business with a friend, helping the two of them to become wealthy. Gladwell does however state that the year you were born also has a strong impact on what way and opportunities you will run into; some of the richest people i.e. John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnigie, etc. were born in the early 1800s allowing them to mature just in time for the greatest economic transformation in history. The third chapter goes on to speak about the trouble with geniuses. Although they are intelligent it stops mattering at a certain point. A man can have an Iq of 130 while another has one of 160, thirty points may seem like a major difference but it isn't because as long as the two are smart enough there is no difference. Anything over a certain IQ is unnecessary and with the lack of creativity comes a boring person unable to think outside of the box.

• What do you think of Gladwell's claim that no one is self made?