Outliers Gladwell Summary

Outliers is Malcolm Gladwell's examination of what makes some people a lot more successful than others. These "outliers," as he calls them, are commonly thought to possess some sort of talent and intelligence far above a normal average person, but he also looks at this popular belief by looking at the background of some famous outliers.
Gladwell begins his research in a small town of Roseto, Pennsylvania. The town is known for having a remarkably low rate of heart disease among its residents. After eliminating possible causes such as diet, genetics and other factors, researchers state that it is the social structure of the tight-knit community that keeps them relatively healthy. The town is founded by Italian immigrants from the same place
in Italy, and Gladwell explains how they transplant their cultural traditions to their new home and how those traditions endure through generations in a "cultural legacy" that makes the town an "outlier."
Gladwell also looks into Canadian junior hockey. The best players, it is stated, are born in the first three months of the year. Investigators discover that this is likely because the cutoff date to play in the age-based junior leagues is January 1. This means that children born shortly after that date are usually the biggest on their teams and have more experience playing than of those born later in the year. They are the most likely, then, to be chosen for the more elite leagues and each and every time gain more experience playing.
Gladwell then takes his research to successful people like Bill Gates and The Beatles.
He finds that in each time, these successful people have a bigger opportunities than others to gain an enormous amount of experience. Bill Gates had access to a computer terminal while he was in middle school, at a time when only large schools and corporations had computers. The Beatles are hired to play almost every day in Hamburg nightclubs before they start seeing success as a recording act.
In addition to receiving an opportunity to gain experience, a successful person also benefits from his cultural legacy. Gladwell compares the legacies of Asian cultures that center on a year-round intensive farming of rice with Western cultures that center on farming less intensive crops. Asian cultures appreciate hard work more, he claims, and this is partly demonstrated in the longer school years they have for their children. He describes that a New York City school that use this Asian model of schooling into a poor neighborhood would receive good results.
Gladwell informs his readers with many examples that apply his theories about experience, opportunity, and cultural legacy to his own family, explaining the conditions that allow his grandparents and mother to succeed in
Jamaica.