In Outliers, Malcom Gladwell discusses the factors that contribute to a person’s success. He argues that success is not determined solely by ability, talent or intelligence. He believes that professional-level practicing and parenting style are two important factors in creating true outliers. One factor in attaining outliers’ status is the 10,000 hours of experience a person puts in. Researchers found that 10,000 hours is the average of how much time someone will invest to be at a professional level in a particular skill or field. For instance, Bill Joy explained “At Michigan, I was probably programming eight or ten hours a day,” (46). In addition, another example of outliers’ were Ericsson and his colleagues who contributed most of their time practicing on the piano. Notably, Neurologist Daniel Levitin comments “The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery …show more content…
Sociologist Annette Lareau conducted a study on both wealthy and poor families to observe how each family raise their children. The first type of parenting style is called concerted cultivation which involves introducing activities throughout a child’s life. To explain, Lareau comments on the middle class children that “They acted as though they had a right to pursue their own individual preferences and to actively manage interactions in institutional settings” (105). The second type of parenting style is practical intelligence in which parents care for their children but let them learn and develop on their own. To further explain, Lareau describes low-class children in her studies as “...often better behaved, less whiney, more creative in making use of their own time, and had a well-developed sense of independence” (104). For the most part, parenting style impacts a child’s mindset and as well contributes to an outlier