The 10,000 Hour Rule is the idea that it takes about 10,000 hours to master a skill. In Outliers, Gladwell uses Bill Gates as an example. According to Gladwell, Gates spent approximately 10,000 hours practicing coding, honing the skills that he would later use to build his multi-billion dollar software company known as Microsoft. Bill Gates is a real-life example of the idiom “Practice makes perfect”.…
In chapter 7 of outliers Gladwell talks about plane crashes in the 1990's in Korea. He says that there are far to many crashes that statistically should happen. Also since Korea was having way to many crashes other countries started to say that they were not going to let Korea fly over them or use their airports if they did not turn themselves around. With this threat Korea began to investigate the reasons for the plane crashes. They first tried to us common sense by saying it was the condition of the plane, the pilots were not trained properly and so on, but what they found out was that everything was up to code. So then they had to investigate deeper and look at other things and what they found out was it was the culture. The plane crashes…
The amount of Final Destination movies that I’ve watched will always make me anxious in airports, even if I know the movie is pure fiction. While reading Gladwell’s theory in Outliers about plane crashes being a result of poor communication and seven consecutive minor human errors (184), I could feel my heart racing. I felt so frustrated because I felt like all of it could’ve been prevented. For example, Klotz using the word “ah” while telling the ATC that the plane was running out of fuel made me so angry because this was a crucial moment, but he wasn’t taking it seriously (193). Gladwell explains this behavior as “mitigated speech” because he’s downplaying the moment while talking to an authority (194).…
The simplest way to describe the “Matthew Effect” is to say that the good will only get better and average will remain average. Gladwell supports this claim using sports examples and asserts that success is not based purely on talent, but rather a combination of talent and other uncontrollable factors, such as opportunities and rules determined by society. He supports this claim by describing the process of how hockey’s All-Stars are chosen. Gladwell explains that because of how the age cutoff dates (a rule set by society) in the hockey leagues are set up, the bigger players are cultivated and receive more attention than the smaller players and therefore, become more skilled. Whereas the smaller players, because of the age cutoff date, will…
An Outlier is someone who stands apart from others in his or her group or profession by acting differently than others, and because of this they are successful. According to Gladwell, most people are incapable of becoming successful; Gladwell says this is because of the radically simple fact that some do not get the same chances and opportunities as others. It has more to do with a person’s fate than their intelligence in his or her field. The general idea of a population is that if a person puts enough time and hard work into something then there is no end to the possibilities to come. The global belief, with the exception of Malcolm Gladwell and his followers, believe that anybody can become successful and everyone has the same opportunity to do the same. This easily acceptable and arguably accurate idea is simply not true. Malcolm Gladwell, author of the popular and mind-altering novel Outliers, thinks otherwise.…
The book, Fahrenheit 451, doesn’t explain how the revolution of banning books was pursued and how the society responded to this change. I don’t think that this big of a revolution would be possible for many reasons. People would not allow the government to control them to the point where numerous rights were taken away from them. For example, if the right to own a gun were taken away from us American citizens, there would be huge riots, which in turn would inevitably overthrow the government. Bradbury does not show faith that the masses of society are strong enough to stand up for their rights but instead believe that the government has the ability to take full control of us American citizens. As ignorant as society can be, I don’t believe…
Within Gladwell's books the prevalent theme of the little things comes up constantly. The Tipping Point being the book where it prevails the most. Gladwell believes that the little things define most of the outcome in life. When he begins the book he starts off with mentioning that economists talk about “...the 80/20 principle… the idea that… 80% of the “work” will be done by 20% of the participants’’. In daily life it can be found that the 80/20 principle takes place for example a group project or a job. The minority of the people do most of the work. This 80/20 is a prime example that the smallest things are what most matter as they change the outcome of the biggest events.…
In the second chapter of his book, Outliers, Malcom Gladwell writes to his readers about the importance of repetitions. In this chapter, Gladwell expresses and gives examples of the importance of repetitions. In order for one to become an expert or excel in something, one must repeat this action for at least 10,000 hours.…
The alienation of Clarisse McClellan in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury reveals the dystopian society’s false assumptions and twisted moral values. Her alienation is shown from the views people in society have on her and her differences within the society.…
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 features a fictional and futuristic firefighter named Guy Montag. As a firefighter, Montag does not put out fires. Instead, he starts them in order to burn books and, basically, knowledge to the human race. He does not have any second thoughts about his responsibility until he meets seventeen-year-old Clarisse McClellan. She reveals many wonders of the world to Montag and causes him to rethink what he is doing in burning books. After his talks with her, the society’s obedience to the law that bans knowledge, thinking, and creativity also increasingly distresses him. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury shows conformity in the futuristic America through schooling, leisure, and fright.…
“It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” In Ray Bradbury’s thrilling novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a fireman but firemen are different in this dystopia. He finds himself spending day after day burning houses and books to keep society conformed to the new laws. After meeting an eccentric girl named Clarisse McClellan she elucidates his myopic view on life. He becomes curious about books and then finds himself in a world of trouble. Montag figures out the theme of this novel, that being yourself is better than conforming.…
Malcolm Gladwel Analyses in his latest book Outliers , the circumstances that made some people successful . He shows another aspect of their self-made rise to success. Gladwell gives the definition of an outlier as an unusual person ‘classed differently from a main or related body’ (2008:3), in other words out of the ordinary. He argues that success is not in any case a matter of talent, but of practice, of social status, culture, and of being in the right place at the right time.…
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury portrays a society with the absence of thought, complete conformity through the use of propaganda, and a disregard for one another. In the story, a city exists some time in the future and makes it illegal to own and read books. The city hires firemen to torch buildings containing the illegal contraband even if there are still people inside the structures. The citizens in the community line up around the “heroic” firemen and applaud the men whenever they save them from the “disgusting content of books” which confuses them by debating theories, methods, and histories that are widely held in the society. Bradbury writes this book to demonstrate the dangers of conformity and thoughtlessness in society. Bradbury’s book ridicules all forms of censorship and makes it clear…
Malcolm Gladwell’s article "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will not be Tweeted" raises many questions about the potential contributions web-based social networking has attributed to the emergence of progressive social movement and change. "The revolution will not be tweeted" is reflective of his view that social media has no useful application in serious activism, which is a bold assertion, given the impact that social media has on today’s society. Gladwell believes that effective social movements powerful enough to impose change on longstanding societal forces will require both strong ties among all involved parties and the presence of the hierarchical organizations. In contrast, Gladwell characterizes the social networks as an interwoven…
Patterns that emerged in the groups of musicians is that there was always a pattern of hours that were needed to achieve a level of mastery. The number of hours that are necessary for the human brain to obtain all of the necessary things to achieve a level of mastery is ten thousand hours. Even prodigies such as Mozart had years of preparation to achieve their greatness.…