“How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity” is an article by Pagan Kennedy of the New York Times based around the topic of the capability of someone to “master” serendipity. She begins the article with the question if “some people have a special talent for serendipity” with the example of someone who made a normal or random action which made him make something more of it. Becoming inspired or making something bigger out of an incident unexpectedly and seeing “new possibilities” is the serendipitousness that she speaks of. She goes on throughout the article to relating back to the question whether it is something that is accomplishable for any type of person to have this “talent” or is it different for everybody. Her argument tied me in because it is something that I’m sure we can all relate to. A time when something or someone came across a discovery and “capitalized on an accident” like many of the everyday inventions or products that we use everyday. Or the “dumb luck” types of serendipity that we think of today most often as she talks about such as that funny video that someone creates and after going viral it lands them a high paying position or attention completely unexpectedly like the 2016 “Damn Daniel” video. She contrasts the definition of …show more content…
Kennedy and I share similar opinions on serendipity and additional elements that contribute to what accurately defines it. Most importantly, she notes that we still know so little about “creative observation” it means that there are still no for sure answers to every question which I think is okay. I believe that everybody views this differently based on what they view as serendipitous or what really defines a serendipitous discovery and this is what makes this article so important forcing people to critically think about such a complex
According to Gladwell, “The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all” (Gladwell 285). Successful people such as Bill Gates, the Beatles, and Joe Flom are considered Outliers because they have achieved outstanding prosperity and fame. According to the traditional concept of success, they rose to the top against all odds because they were more talented than their competitors. The notion that innate talent is the root of success, however, is a fallacy. All outliers have had help getting to the top.
Work Equals Success Annie Dillard’s essay, “It’s not talent; it’s just work”, uses different techniques to get the attention of the readers. Dillard uses humor and idioms in her writing. She adds these things to help support her main idea, success equals hard work. This ,in turn, impacts her essay greatly. Dillard’s first technique she uses is humor.
Time or Talent: Can someone be born gifted or do they have to ‘earn’ their talent? In order to be successful, 10,000 hours is required to become professional; however, in order to be successful one must be born in the right time and place. Malcolm Gladwell makes this argument by providing evidence that Bill Joy, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs were all born from 1952 and 1958 and now became some of the most successful people in the world by their twenties. In the chapter “The 10,000-Hour Rule”, Malcolm Gladwell uses tables and anecdotes of famous people in order to create a logical argument and effectively boost his reliability (ethos). However, in the process of using charts and anecdotal evidence, Gladwell creates many logical fallacies, which makes both his logos- and ethos-based arguments ineffective.
Luck is many times considered silly or just part of someone’s imagination, but it can really play a big role in what becomes of an individual. In the first chapter, titled “The Matthew Effect”, we
In many instances, those who are successful are made out to be some sort of separate breed, those who were innately able to perform remarkable feats that others, no matter how hard they tried, simply could not. Through this exhibition, many people view success as an elusive feature that only a select few can obtain. This theory is the main inspiration for Malcolm Gladwell’s exploration of success in Outliers: The Story of Success. In the book, Gladwell analyzes not only those who are successful, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, J.R. Oppenheimer, and Joe Flom, but what path led them towards becoming exceptionally skilled. This extremely in-depth analysis of successfulness forms Gladwell’s layered theory of what creates success, and his attempt
Is it coincidental that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Bill Joy and many other multi-millionaires were all born within a span of 3 years? Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, suspects that there is something more behind this occurrence than just a simple coincidence. He asserts that there is no such thing as a self-made man and success does not come from natural talent, rather it comes from extraordinary opportunities and hidden advantages. In Outliers, Gladwell attempts to debunk the myth that people are successful because of themselves, and not because of other factors. Even Malcolm Gladwell acknowledges that passion and hard work are required to succeed. However, he believes that this passion and time to put in the work would not be possible without the aid of extraordinary opportunities. Gladwell prepares a firm set of logical arguments, including the advantages of birth dates, cultural legacy and family backgrounds, to guarantee that his audience will be convinced of his conviction.
According to Marian Erickson, “Most of life is choices, and the rest is pure dumb luck.” Real people’s lives depend on this quote everyday, which leads to the outcome of each problem individuals face. In the passages, characterization of the main personas helps one understand the theme. Conflict and symbolism also help lead to the overall idea that life is not always guaranteed to be full of success. The book The Other Wes Moore, the poem “If,” and the informational text “The Art of Resilience” all share a common theme of how choices and luck contribute to the success of life.
The term ‘discovery’ can be explored and interpreted in many different ways, the meaning is created by an individual’s perception, opinion and experiences of discovery. In the book Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch and the film, Titanic by James Cameron explores the concept of discovery as an idea that discoveries can be challenging as they allow for the transformation of an individual’s perspective, and they allow for an individual to discover their true identity and the identity of others around them.
Jessica Bennett is stating that Internet fame has a dark side and how becoming internet famous may not be great. There will always be backlash for any type of fame, so it’s to be expected with internet fame. Jessica lists many examples that backup her opinion on internet fame.
“Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.” As seen above, Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers revolves around success and the constituents influencing it. His quote above wraps up the overall theme that drives this book; success and the things that make success happen the most. Gladwell argues in Outliers, that success can be derived mainly from opportunities that the everyday person does not encounter. For example, bill gates creating microsoft, athletes becoming famous because of the month they were born in so on and so forth. To me, success does not rely on one’s opportunities. Instead it comes directly from individual merit.
There are times in life that we attribute good luck to our hard work, dedication or talent but there are some other times when we can say that luck is just a chance that we get. As we can see on the work of this two authors James H. Austin the author of “Four kinds of chance” published in Saturday Review and Robert H. Frank author of “why luck matters much more than you think” published in The Atlantic (May 2016) they show the reader how chances can influence in different ways. After reading their work I consider Robert H Frank article more effectively fulfills his thesis.
In the words of John Wooden, "Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful." The talent we have was given to us by God and we need to remember that. Fame was given to us by the talent we have and we need to be grateful for the talent and fame we have. This essay will show you have some people, places, things, and ideas get their fame.
James Joyce’s short stories “Araby” and “The Dead” both depict self-discovery as being defined by moments of epiphany. Both portray characters who experience similar emotions and who, at the ends of the stories, confront similarly harsh realities of self-discovery. In each of these stories, Joyce builds up to the moment of epiphany through a careful structure of events and emotions that leads both protagonists to a redefining moment of self-discovery.
There’s something about writing your raw emotions on a piece of paper that allows your spirit to run free and hold no boundaries of what you can think of and it's only the moments in life that can fuel the locked potential inside you. The epiphany of my life was actually closer to this present time than in the past, about last year my family moved from New haven to Branford. In New haven I was in a program which allowed me to go to Wallingford as a district school and I spent 6 years in this program making friends and going to school all I knew from my elementary to highschool period from then was Wallingford. While schooling in Wallingford district living in New haven I had developed a skill of poetry in the midst of 8th grade. I found that
YouTube is a video sharing website which allows people to post videos and share them with just about everybody in the world. YouTube has developed many personalities including Tom Dickinson. Dickinson, the CEO of a blending machine company called BlendTec is famous on YouTube for promoting his powerful blender. In the YouTube videos, Dickinson blends everything from mp3 players to tablet pc’s inside his blender. These videos have generated millions of viewers and as a result BlendTec is one of the most successful companies in the market. YouTube has also started careers for many young aspirers like Marie Digby. Digby is an American singer and songwriter whose career picked up when she posted her acoustic cover version of “umbrella” on YouTube. Digby gained 17 million viewers for that video and she became an overnight celebrity. Within months of posting the video she received many offers from record label companies and she signed with Hollywood Records. With all the great career benefits of YouTube, it is also a great source of entertainment and knowledge. On YouTube I can see videos posted from people all over the world. For example on YouTube I watch videos on Indian music and Indian food. From watching hundreds of videos posted online I am now more familiar with the language and the food. It has enriched my Indian culture and helped me trace my Indian roots.