Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story Of Success
“The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.”
Malcolm Gladwell’s, Outliers: The Story of Success, provokes reconsideration of the meaning of intelligence and success by challenging the traditional definition and concept of each word. Gladwell’s extensive research within the fields of sociology, psychology, and social psychology display his credibility regarding his critical analysis on success and its causes. In Outliers, Gladwell examines individuals who have reached high levels of success and emphasizes the importance of the contributions from environmental and cultural factors that have led to their success. Throughout the novel, the reader’s knowledge and intellect is tested through persuasive cases and illustrations that support …show more content…
Beginning with the town of Roseto in Pennsylvania, Gladwell introduces the idea and society’s association with outliers and stresses the importance of environmental and cultural factors to physical health. Stewart Wolf, a physician, closely studies the town of Roseto and concludes that the people mentality’s and surroundings were associated with their low rates of heart disease compared to the rates in the rest of the country. This case foreshadows the rest of the book because it uses the townspeople of Roseto as the model of success and then explains that it is only due to outside factors, the location of the town in Pennsylvania and the fact that everyone was from the same town in Italy, therefore sharing the same environmental and cultural factors.
The latter portion of the novel focuses on legacies and cultural legacies and their impact on success. The cases of family feuds in Harlan, Kentucky, Korean Air plane crash rates, and the connection between work and schooling ethics in Asia each display the notion that cultural legacies parallel with their level of success. Gladwell concludes, “Outliers are those who have been given opportunities -- and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” (Gladwell, 2008, p. 267), indicating that a person’s surroundings and how they make use of them impacts their future and their
Malcolm Gladwell’s, Outliers: The Story of Success, provokes reconsideration of the meaning of intelligence and success by challenging the traditional definition and concept of each word. Gladwell’s extensive research within the fields of sociology, psychology, and social psychology display his credibility regarding his critical analysis on success and its causes. In Outliers, Gladwell examines individuals who have reached high levels of success and emphasizes the importance of the contributions from environmental and cultural factors that have led to their success. Throughout the novel, the reader’s knowledge and intellect is tested through persuasive cases and illustrations that support …show more content…
Beginning with the town of Roseto in Pennsylvania, Gladwell introduces the idea and society’s association with outliers and stresses the importance of environmental and cultural factors to physical health. Stewart Wolf, a physician, closely studies the town of Roseto and concludes that the people mentality’s and surroundings were associated with their low rates of heart disease compared to the rates in the rest of the country. This case foreshadows the rest of the book because it uses the townspeople of Roseto as the model of success and then explains that it is only due to outside factors, the location of the town in Pennsylvania and the fact that everyone was from the same town in Italy, therefore sharing the same environmental and cultural factors.
The latter portion of the novel focuses on legacies and cultural legacies and their impact on success. The cases of family feuds in Harlan, Kentucky, Korean Air plane crash rates, and the connection between work and schooling ethics in Asia each display the notion that cultural legacies parallel with their level of success. Gladwell concludes, “Outliers are those who have been given opportunities -- and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” (Gladwell, 2008, p. 267), indicating that a person’s surroundings and how they make use of them impacts their future and their