Summary Of Outliers By David Epstein

How much of what happens in our lives do we actually control? This is a question that mankind has been pondering for thousands of years. There are two different articles that could answer the question. David Epstein, the author of “The Sports Gene”, writes about a true story of fate, in which an amateur high jumper makes it to the top due to his god-given gift of a large Achille’s tendon. Malcom Gladwell argues in his piece, “Outliers,” that success depends on one’s willingness to practice or try again. Using extensive research and solid evidence, Malcom Gladwell creates a better argument that success is a result of hard work and dedication, and therefore better answers the question, “How much of what happens in our lives do we actually control?”

Wayne Gretzky skates down the ice with the puck, he fakes a shot, the goalie falls for it, Gretzky shoots, he scores! This is a common occurrence for Wayne Gretzky, a former NHL player who holds the record for most career regular-season goals (894), assists (1,963), points (2,857), and hat tricks (50). Most people would say Gretzky’s success all stems from his innate talent, but in “The Matthew Effect,” Gladwell argues that innate talent is not the only reason for success. He reveals there’s a much more surprising reason. In Gladwell’s chapter, “The Matthew Effect,” the controversial writer expertly asks rhetorical questions and uses charts and statistics to defend his claim that a person’s date of birth has a significant influence on their athletic and academic success.

Every elite athlete makes it look easy. Splashing through the water or striding gracefully down the track making it look effortless. Some people assume they are “naturals,” that their perfect DNA sequence is what has brought them to this level. Others argue that hard work and drive is what has made the difference, separating the elite from the average. These thoughts are the ones that give rise to the age-old nature vs. nurture debate. Countless hours of studies and research has concluded: it’s both. High performance sports consultant Ross Tucker puts it this way, “The science of success is about the coming together of dozens, perhaps hundreds of factors” (1). The relationship of such factors, including genetics, types and lengths of

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.

“I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfill our destiny, but our fate is sealed” (Paulo Coelho). In other words, people can control what they want to do in life, but they cannot choose what happens in that matter. Do people have a choice to succeed or is it naturally given to someone? In the Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, the author argues that people make their own success in life, by using examples of music skill, performance, and other talents to back up his claim. On the other hand, The Sports Gene, by David Epstein, argues

In Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell argues that success is not earned through talent. He states that success is obtained through forces people can not control such as luck and opportunities giving to them by others. Success is also gained through backgrounds and the year in which one is born. To support his argument Gladwell uses facts, statistics, and a few anecdotes.

During my childhood, I played many sports I absolutely adored, and those sports taught me many lessons I will never forget. Sports were how I made the most of my friends and how I relieved most of my stress. I believe sports can have noteworthy influence in other areas of life. In Kevin Kniffin’s article, “High School Athletes Gain Lifetime Benefits”, Kniffin explains how research shows people who played sports go on to get better jobs and better pay by using the life lessons they were taught from sports.

One of these rebuttals is the claim that mastery can be achieved through talent alone. To refute this statement, Gladwell uses the examples of the master chess players and the international basketball stars. These people reached the top of their field in nearly half the time of others, but Gladwell points out that they did not truly become masters. The chess players reached the lowest level of mastery attainable and the international basketball players had not yet been pitted against NBA players, thought by most to be the best in the world. Gladwell declares “Arguments about what it takes to be an elite performer are less persuasive if the performers being studies aren’t actually

In the short story, 10,000 Hours, by Malcolm Gladwell, he starts his writing with the question of “Is there such thing as innate talent?” Meaning there obviously is such a thing as being born with some sort of talent in some field but that doesn’t mean someone can’t practice and work harder than those of such great talent. Gladwell presents a study in this story to show the possibilities of average or below people than those that were meant for the broadway lights right from the gate. The author’s purpose of this short writing is to show his audience that everyone has potential to be the best not by just natural talent, but hard work.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he presents major factors and theories that influence a person in becoming successful or a master at a skill, but there are other factors to consider. In the world of soccer, athletes that make it big playing for national teams or professional club teams usually peak in their careers at a certain age. The common age is late twenties and rarely but sometimes thirty. In order to have a career in soccer by that early age players must start serious soccer training young and be noticed at a precise point of their life. To master a skill completing the “ten thousand hour rule” or being lucky enough to benefit from the “Mathew effect”, and “Joe Flom’s rules” can be important which is Gladwell’s point in his book

In the life of sports, it is often said that one doesn’t choose the game, but that the game chooses the person. When it comes to athletic talent, I don’t believe God blessed me with it, at least, not naturally. But, ever since I was young, the gifts with which I have been blessed are determination and drive – to accomplish whatever I set out to accomplish. And, while football didn’t choose me, I chose it.

study involving violinists and about how many hours they’ve practiced in their lifetime. This study polled the violinists, resulting in similar results between each of them. Each of the violinists, all on different levels of playing, had practiced for at least 10,000 hours. Gladwell also stated that regardless of your origins and riches, the only thing that matters is practice for a

A common theme in Gladwell’s book is hard work. None of the truly successful people got to where they are without lots of hard work. To become a professional athlete or anything really it takes ten thousand hours of practice. That is just the minimum. No one is naturally talented in the sense that they can not put in the hard work and come out on top. Gladwell mentions that in one of the studies of a school’s population of violinists, they “couldn’t find and “naturals,” musicians who floated effortlessly to to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did” (39). They also did not find anyone who worked harder than everyone else but did not make it to the top. “Even Mozart -- the greatest musical prodigy of all time -- couldn’t hit his stride until he had his ten thousand hours in” (42). Mozart, a child prodigy, could not write his famous pieces until he had practiced enough, and worked hard. Even a prodigy had

Even though a couple of them state that the environment plays a larger role than genes, the facts show that both are needed to shape an individual. I like to look at the Gallup Strengths Model and its correlation to a couple of these cases. According to the Gallup Strengths Model, “strengths are a combination of both natural talent and nurtured skills.” This means that people have limits, and it is a waste of time to try and develop talents that an individual does not possess. Likewise, if an individual’s talent is not properly stimulated, it will never actually develop. This goes back to Corey’s IQ rising and Eric’s remaining the same, and William Velasco never being able to develop to his full potential because of the poor resources. You can take this concept and apply it to any of these studies, and it will ultimately make sense. Like I previously mentioned, I believe that both nature and nurture play important roles in human

What makes a good athlete? What separates a person on the 1st line up from a bench warmer? Where does athleticism come from? Is it from our genes, or is it a product of the environment we live in? These are the types of questions that arise in the nature vs. nurture debate pertaining about athletic ability. In 1582, British educator, Richard Mulcaster wrote that
''Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward,'' he gave the world
a euphonious name for an opposition that has been debated ever since; Nature and Nurture. People's
beliefs about the roles of heredity and environment affect their opinions on an
astonishing range of topics including sports. The nature versus nurture debate not only exists in the sporting community but also in many others. It is a very controversial topic that has puzzled researchers for centuries. There are two sides to the debate; Nature and Nurture. To be on the side on nature one believes that DNA and heredity make us who we are. In the case of sports, an athlete is born with genes that give them the ability to excel in a certain sport. On the other hand, many people believe that we become who we are because of the environment and people around us; Nurture. A nurtured athlete is an individual that has developed elite skills over time caused by rigorous training and their surroundings. Nature or nurture, which contributes more to the creation of professional athletes?