Outliers Summer Reading Assignment Introduction: The beginning of the book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, starts off with the story of the Roseto Mystery. This is referencing from a true story taken place in a small town named Roseto in Pennsylvania. The name Roseto originated from Italy, this is named so because the people who make up Roseto, Pennsylvania are immigrants from Italy. People from this small, self-sufficient town amazed many doctors such as Stewart Wolf; the fact that heart disease is less common for men under the age of sixty-five.…
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…
“Fahrenheit 451” has lot’s of symbolism representing the corruption of the government. The phoenix is a great representation of the rebirth of society. Montag had realized the people that had been hiding in the forest where memorizing books, their leader was Granger.…
In Gladwell’s opening chapter of Outliers, he begins to tell us about where success comes from. Right away he makes clear that people do not come from nothing, to be successful, all on their own. He does this because you often here sports broadcasters say, “John Doe, came from absolutely nothing, to become this sports All-Start.” Gladwell uses the analogy of the tallest tree in the forest. He says that that tree does not get to be the tallest on its own. Gladwell reminds us that the sun was not blocked from that tree. That tree had no root damage from rabbits. That the tree was spared from a lumber jack. That tallest tree had help from many aspects of nature.…
In the book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, the central theory that Gladwell presents is that often the decisions and observations made in only a split-second, in the blink of the eye, are better than decisions which are made after extensive thought. To present and justify this idea Gladwell describes the lives of several people who make, or have made, important snap decisions with a high level of success or failure. He then explains the logic behind each story and relates it back to his original principle. The narratives include the story of a fake Greek statue and the debate of it's authenticity, a retired U.S. general who defeated the best of the military with quick thinking, and a group of police officers who killed an innocent immigrant because of a tragic misunderstanding, among many others. While I found many of these anecdotes interesting and do agree to a certain point that on occasion trusting your intuition is more effective than boundless thinking, many of the examples used in Blink oversimplify or misstate the importance of "those first 2 seconds" (8).…
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.…
While going through the PBS website called Power of Illusion, we found many things that were new to us and that surprised us. The things that were new to us was the idea of race is actually a modern idea. Ancient societies did not divide people according to physical differences. Another idea that was new to us, was the adding of race to our census was not added until 1790, additionally the race of “Mexican” was not added until 1930. What surprised us the most was that us as humans actually have not been around long enough to put ourselves in subcategories based on our race or ethnicity.…
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 book Outliers written by Maclolm Gladwell is a book about success. Throughout the book he gives numerous examples of how people have achieved and in some instances, not achieved success. Popular belief would suggest that people who are considered outliers have gotten there through hard work and innate talent. Gladwell however, suggest that something is contributing to people being able to seek the levels of success that would make them an outlier. Gladwell believes that hidden advantages, extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies are the main factors of predicting success. Gladwell makes strong arguments to back up his claims chapter after chapter in the book. While I was reading Outliers one…
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell explores the idea of “thin-slicing,” which is the act of the brain only using a small bit of information to make a decision. These types of snap judgements are sometimes thought to be inferior to well thought out and studied decisions. Gladwell shows that well researched decisions are not always better decisions.…
In chapter Eight of the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell claims that Asian people are more likely to develop and have better mathematical skills than Western people because of their cultural background. Gladwell explains how difficult it is to farm rice without advance equipment yet high percentage of Asian family handled to maintain and produce good quality of rice for years. Gladwell also mentions how farming rice requires about 3000 hours of care in a year which led to shaping Asian people’s personal qualities such as patience, motivation, and hard work. Gladwell then demonstrates how these cultural developed qualities encourages Asians to excel in math because they are more likely to put in hours and dedicate themselves to stick with math…
To convince his audience of that, however; Gladwell must first ensure that they are able to connect with his journey to discover the truth behind first impressions. The style choice of a personal narrative helps the reader get involved with the essay and makes the author more relatable. Gladwell informs the readers of his first impressions of Nolan Myers despite knowing they are unlikely to be accurate (5). The author starts forming a relationship with the reader early by showing his vulnerability and humanity. He acknowledges his own fallibility in believing his conversation with Myers allowed him to determine that Myers is a person he would like and that he will succeed in any position. Gladwell extends that relationship when he reveals that…
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book that should be taught in a high school student’s education because of the warnings and important messages it displays. In my opinion, the most important message in the book has to do with the misuse of technology. Bradbury even says himself that technology can be useful in some ways, but that it can’t and shouldn’t replace human connection and interaction. He uses the example of TV’s on all four walls to get his point across that people are paying more attention to TV, rather than actual people speaking to them. This repeatedly happens with Mildred throughout the book and it helps flip a switch in Montag’s head. He finally realizes that’s not how human interaction is supposed to work. It propels…