Prior to reading Malcolm
Gladwell’s book Outliers, I had
seen it referenced by others in relation to the so-called “10,000-hour rule.”
This is the concept that mastery of a complex skill takes about 10,000 hours of
practice. This idea is not original to Gladwell, but his book popularized the
concept.
That is not at all the point of Outliers.
Instead, Gladwell takes on myths of success,
especially the myths of genius and the self-made man. Certainly people of
extraordinary achievement are intelligent and hard-working, but Gladwell shows
that they also the beneficiaries of opportunities provided by their culture,
sometimes very unique opportunities.
To start, Gladwell tackles our enchantment with intelligence
(or talent).
He describes research that shows that intelligence matters very little after it
reaches some threshold. Once someone has enough intelligence to succeed at
something, whether he succeeds for the degree of his achievement is not
determined by intelligence. Other things are more important.
One of those other things is the amount of work someone puts into
improving a skill (going back to the 10,000-hour rule). Even for a very
motivated person, it is hard to put 10,000 hours into learning and improving
any complex skill, especially while relatively young. Drawing from many cases
(including Bill
Gates and Mozart),
high-achievers were enabled by opportunities provided by the culture (family,
economic situation, law,
technological
development, etc.). In addition, they gained their mastery at a time when those
abilities were highly valued (another cultural contribution that is often
time-limited).
After establishing this foundation, Gladwell looks at other aspects of
culture and success. Culture can contribute to success and hinder it. Cultures
are persistent, yet some have found ways, at least in certain contexts, of
overcoming limits to opportunities and opening the doors to success.
Culture matters. We like stories of the lone genius or plucky
rag-to-riches go-getter. Without discounting their talent or effort, Gladwell
shows that these stories typically veil the many opportunities and lucky breaks
that were available to these successful people that very often were not
available to others.
The implication is that we rely on luck to produced highly successful
people, and luck doesn’t strike often. We could create cultures that provide
more opportunities for more people. There are plenty of smart-enough people.
Many of them are willing to work hard at something meaningful (itself something
that is a cultural heritage). We might have many more successful people, and
even more of those extraordinary performers, if we got serious about providing
opportunities for everyone.
Malcolm Gladwell also wrote
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
No comments:
Post a Comment