Author : Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher : Allen Lane ( Penguin Books)
Price : Rs 399
Book review # 8
I bought this book with lot of expectations . I was thoroughly impressed by Malcolm Gladwell's previous 
books - The Tipping Point and The Blink.
The main motivation for me to buy this book was the " tagline" of the book. Gladwell marketed this book as one which will explain the story of success and honestly I fell for it.
I am disappointed .
Unlike the earlier creations, Outliers is nothing to write about. It is an ordinary and often a very boring read, except for the first two chapters. I found the book boring may be because I expected too much out of it. I knew that it was not a self- help book that will give you a step by step approach to success but I expected a hell lot of insights into those beautiful minds that created successes.
books - The Tipping Point and The Blink.The main motivation for me to buy this book was the " tagline" of the book. Gladwell marketed this book as one which will explain the story of success and honestly I fell for it.
I am disappointed .
Unlike the earlier creations, Outliers is nothing to write about. It is an ordinary and often a very boring read, except for the first two chapters. I found the book boring may be because I expected too much out of it. I knew that it was not a self- help book that will give you a step by step approach to success but I expected a hell lot of insights into those beautiful minds that created successes.
The author defines Outliers as those who have achieved extraordinary success in their lives.
As a reader, my only take-away from this book is his 10,000 hours rule. It is a remarkable insight and may be that single insight makes the money spent on this book worthwhile.
The ten thousand hour rule is simple
If you want to be a genius in a chosen field , you have to put in 10,000 hours of practice/study.
That is it...
This is not a new insight . We all knew that hardwork is essential and hardwork = success equation has become a cliche. But nobody has put a quantitative benchmark to the amount of hardwork needed to become a success.
Malcolm Gladwell did a great service by putting a magical number to hardwork. I thank him for that. Now I can tell my daughter and students about the quantum of work they have to put in to become a genius.
To my surprise, after giving away a powerful insight, Gladwell tried to undo and negate this 10,000 rule in the rest of the chapters. By quoting outdated examples , Gladwell tried to establish that external circumstances play the major role in shaping outliers. So effectively he says that even if you put in 10,000 hours of study , you may not become an outlier ????????
Then he goes on proving his contradictions with examples from history and most of the examples were alien to me.
But in the marketing point of view, this book was marketed well. There will be lot of readers like me who may have bought this book thinking that Gladwell will reveal the secret key to success....
and the message given to us by the author was :
fool... try working hard.. nobody has become successful by reading a book...
As a reader, my only take-away from this book is his 10,000 hours rule. It is a remarkable insight and may be that single insight makes the money spent on this book worthwhile.
The ten thousand hour rule is simple
If you want to be a genius in a chosen field , you have to put in 10,000 hours of practice/study.
That is it...
This is not a new insight . We all knew that hardwork is essential and hardwork = success equation has become a cliche. But nobody has put a quantitative benchmark to the amount of hardwork needed to become a success.
Malcolm Gladwell did a great service by putting a magical number to hardwork. I thank him for that. Now I can tell my daughter and students about the quantum of work they have to put in to become a genius.
To my surprise, after giving away a powerful insight, Gladwell tried to undo and negate this 10,000 rule in the rest of the chapters. By quoting outdated examples , Gladwell tried to establish that external circumstances play the major role in shaping outliers. So effectively he says that even if you put in 10,000 hours of study , you may not become an outlier ????????
Then he goes on proving his contradictions with examples from history and most of the examples were alien to me.
But in the marketing point of view, this book was marketed well. There will be lot of readers like me who may have bought this book thinking that Gladwell will reveal the secret key to success....
and the message given to us by the author was :
fool... try working hard.. nobody has become successful by reading a book...
you are quiet upset after reading the book. dont think i will be picking this book up for sure now.
ReplyDeleteSorry to disagree but I thought that this book was anything but boring and was a very interesting read - just as good as Blink & The Tipping point in it's own way. The stories about The Beatles and Bill Gates were new to me and I have told 2 people to read it who agreed. For me the weak point was the end which failed to draw any real conclusions but a very worthwhile read in my view
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI also bought this book by redaing his earlier 2 books.
I started this book and finished first 3 chapters, they are g8.
Let me see how the remaining book turns up. I was very much impressed with the first 2 chapters.
I have one question: Is this book not about how as a society we contribute to some one's sucess or failure. This is not about indiviual merit. Its not a self help book on sucess but rather a attempt to look at outliers from society's persepctive rather from a individaul aspect.
Thanks & regards,
Sunny
"By quoting outdated examples , Gladwell tried to establish that external circumstances play the major role in shaping outliers. So effectively he says that even if you put in 10,000 hours of study , you may not become an outlier ????????"
ReplyDeleteThe book never says that. Maybe you need to read it before messing up your mind in rushing to write the review. 10,000 Hrs of study....yes truly if he said that only this much study will guarantee you success, it's a lie. Work is important, but so are the circumstances. He is not dis agreeing with his logic, but just trying to put both of them together. Both go along nicely with each other!
Another thing....Outdated examples??? What do u mean? He can't give futuristic examples. He has given a different view on your so called outdated examples.
I felt the same after reading this book, that if you don't happen to have the family background or environment, you will never be an outlier.
ReplyDeleteWhen he commes to Asia, it showed his lack of knowledge of Asia and its culture. Singapore don't produce rice. Japanese numeral counting is more complex than what he had mentioned. In the Japanese language, they use different words for counting different objects and days, to mention a few.
Although he has brought up examples, they are far and few. Although the succes rate for those born in those 19xx years were high, why didn't he compare the birth rates for the different period to get a sense of the portion.
Malcom seem to suggest that success comes from being lucky, because we are not in control of our background, birthday etc. It comforts those who think they are not successful and warns those who are working towards success that it does not matter how hard you work, its the family......