Malcolm Gladwell Book Report

Criminal case is always tedious when it involves little or no information about the offender, like in the 9/11 terrorist attack which annihilated most of the workers in and damaged the New York Trade Center building. However, in an attempt to identify the offenders, government officials and investigators try out different ways such as criminal profiling and others. Thus, in the New Yorker article, “Dangerous Minds” by Malcolm Gladwell; the author informs the deeper problems with FBI profiling and argues that it is ineffective. He questions the usefulness of criminal profiling, “But how useful is that profile, really?” and uses other criminal cases, group research analyses, and analogies to refute

In summing up Gladwell’s argument, the lesson he forwards is very simple. If we continue to believe in the myth of the “self-made” individual, we will continually seek out some strange gifted individual that never existed. In order to be more effective as a society or better stated, a world community,

Throughout the book, Gladwell talks about how culture family and ones’ upbringing can determine ones’ success in the future. In the introduction of the book, Gladwell states, "It's not enough to ask what successful people are like. It is only by asking where they

Starting in Chapter 6 Gladwell presents us with the mysterious and seemingly inexplicable series of events that occurred in Harlan, Kentucky in the 19th century to introduce the enormous effect of cultural legacies.

In the book he tells readers the lives of other people and incidents in their lives. The first person we hear about is Bill Joy. Gladwell tells how Joy was a smart kid who ended up getting into a the University of Michigan in 1971, the same year the university opened its computer center. Joy became very interested in programming computers and got a job in the summer where he could program. Joy learned that you could enter t equals k and they wouldn’t charge you (46). By finding this Joy could program all day every day which allowed Joy to gain 10,000 hours of practice. Afterwards Joy was able to develop programs still used today. Gladwell uses this anecdote to back up the theory that 10,000 hours of practice leads to perfection which leads to success. The next person is Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist. He “headed the American effort to develop the nuclear bomb during World War II” (97). While Oppenheimer was in college he was depressed and had a tutor who made him attend the minutiae of experimental physics which he hated. He grew more and more unstable until he tried to poison his tutor. Oppenheimer met the general behind the Manhattan Project and was able to charm the general into letting him work on the project. Even though he had a history of being unstable and trying to poison his tutor Oppenheimer was charming and had social savvy which he used in order to get what he wants. He was from a middle class family where he was taught to speak up for himself and to take control of a conversation even if it is with an older person. His background as a child who grew up in middle class house helped him to work on the project. Gladwell provided many anecdotes in his book to help show that people could not control success. He shows that success can be gained by ethnic background, opportunities they are giving, and how much the worked. Many of the anecdotes show that people were giving good opportunities that were not

The first type of social media was created in 1997 and it was called Six Degrees. It allowed you to upload a profile for yourself and be friends with other people on the site. It wasn’t until February of 2004 when Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg. When Facebook first came out it was an instant hit. Another social media that is trending is Twitter, which was created in March of 2006. Twitter did not become as big of a hit as Facebook in the beginning because Facebook was still the highest used social media in the world at the same time Twitter came out. In the book by Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, it helps shows how twitter and social media is more of a connector than a maven or salesperson. Without the use of social such

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book analyzing the traits and characteristics of the most successful people in human history, hence the title Outliers as it examines those who have stood out dramatically in society. Born in Fareham, Hampshire, England in 1963, Malcolm moved to Ontario, Canada at the age of six and spent his remaining developmental years in the country (Dphiffer). After graduating from Trinity College in Toronto in 1984, Malcolm began work for the Washington Post in 1987 where he stayed until 1996. Since then, Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer for The New Yorker, and in addition to Outliers he has also written two more New York Times best-sellers, and is highly regarded in the field of journalism and writing. He has received numerous accolades for his work including being named one of the top 100 most influential people by Time Magazine, along

Q1. What is the general focus of Part 2? Answer: The general focus of Part 2 is ‘legacy’.

Essentially, the topics Gladwell covered in this book include are, being at the right place at the right time, the 10,000-hour rule, timing, upbringing, and pursuing a meaningful career. Although all of these have been proven by Gladwell to be a major component of success, I do not agree with the idea of a particular upbringing will determine success. With this idea, Malcolm also includes that

The author, Gladwell's, research focuses on KIPP Academy a public middle school in the South Bronx, New York City. Children enrolled in KIPP live in the poorest neighborhoods and are randomly chosen by lottery to join the school. Their goal is for students to acquire an opportunity of education similar to higher class student. KIPP proves that despite their economic situation, students can achieve high academic grades with time and dedication. They believe students should spend more time in school studying to become successful. Students vacations are limited since they make student’s learning procrastinate

Extra Credit: In this chapter, Gladwell does address and disprove a counterargument that everyone came from hardworking hunter-gatherers. Gladwell disproves this by showing that hunter-gathers diet was largely “a rich assortment of fruits, berries, roots, and nuts” (Gladwell 233) which isn’t that difficult to find. They didn’t grow crops, nor raise animals, so they never had any hard work that needed to get done. This shows that not everyone has the same hard working background that the Asians do, and their ore each culture grows different individuals that show different

Each example that Gladwell gives throughout this book have one thing in common; that there was some occurrence or event that allowed each one to become that way. Malcom Gladwell has managed to relate the success of people with other aspects of their lives; for example, their birthday, birthplace,

Connect: On page 6, Malcolm Gladwell states, “giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the source of great weakness.” I knew that many people, in today’s standards, take advantage of what helps them the most. For example, I think technology is our greatest strength, in relation to Gladwell’s book when he talks about Goliath, because with it, we accomplish so much and we can learn something new with a push of a button.

Chapter two, Gladwell uses an inverted U-curve to describe that having too much of something is not always good. Examples that he gave to support this saying were: The class size at schools and the amount of money a family has (their income). About class sizes, he explained that having few students, there will be no diversity in the classroom, which means you do not have a lot of discussions and the students don’t do that well in class; however, there is a controversial, many people believe that classrooms with fewer students make more sense because the teacher can give more attention to and have a strong relationship with the students. At the highest point of the parabola is where it has the almost perfect combination of class size and academic

Gladwell used many anecdotes and stories to push his hypotheses. An example would be the two chapters titled “The Trouble with Geniuses Part One and The Trouble With Geniuses Part Two”. In these chapters, Gladwell introduces Chris Langan, a man with an IQ higher