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Outliers

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OUTLIERS

SUMMARY
"Outlier" is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience. It is basically anything out of the ordinary. Malcolm Gladwell started using that term in his book with same name to describe truly exceptional individuals who, in their field of expertise, are so superior that they define their own category of success. For Gladwell these individuals are outliers.
He tries to understand the success of different successful people, such as, Bill Gates, Oppenheimer and even The Beatles. Looking into the lives of successful individuals, he helps us change the way we think about them. He claims that a large part of their success is not only because they had put in so much work and effort, but also because the right opportunities came along once they were at this expert level.
Throughout the book, he mentions the “10,000 Hours Rule”, explaining that most people need around 10,000 hours to become an expert in their specific area. So basically, those who get good usually had the opportunity to practice.

OPINION
I found a video of Malcolm Gladwell talking about his book in an interview, which I believe is totally fascinating and really makes you think about the achievements of these successful people in a different way. It is clear that hard work and determination are often necessary, however, luck can also help you along.
This fact can be illustrated with the comparison he makes of two bright individuals with different backgrounds; one individual is brought up in a low class family, gets to go to college yet he drops out due to financial problems and ends up being a bouncer; while the other one was lucky enough to grow in a upper class family and gets to go to Ivy League Universities. The first individual was unable to flourish in a university environment just because he was not brought up wealthy. Although he is deeply read in philosophy, mathematics, and physics without academic credentials, he despairs of ever getting published in a scholarly journal.
I found astonishing the example of this individual who failed to realize his potential in part because of poor social skills resulting from being raised in poverty.

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