Summary Of ' Outliers ' By Malcolm Gladwell Essay

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, a novel depicting success, provides different examples of how an individual can achieve success in every chapter of his book to show his audience that success, despite a variety of barriers, is in fact in our control. A very important chapter titled, “Marita's Bargain”, explains the flaws in today’s public school systems. He shows the problems with the solutions to fix them while showing the alternatives to the regular system such as the KIPP Program in New York. The KIPP Program (Knowledge is Power Program) is a new kind of middle school that selects students from less fortunate locations and uses unique teaching strategies to turn them around into fantastic learners. In the chapter, Gladwell is extremely descriptive by using visual words to paint the picture of the South Bronx in New York City. He describes the buildings that were built in the 1960’s as squat and bleak looking. Gladwell had an interest in this subject as it involves success, however he had no prior experiences to produce the piece. Gladwell establishes personal credibility through the use of knowledge, reason, and facts and figures. He comes across very knowledgeable on the subject presenting great data with excellent vocabulary. He is able to do this with no obvious bias as well. Gladwell shows authority because he is well known for writing novels that involve success. His intention is to teach and explain how schools need to change the length of vacation breaks

Like the book “Outliers” its author Malcolm Gladwell is also an outlier himself. Having all of his books published as well as becoming a NY times best selling author, accomplishing a great feat. According to the Huffington Post website, in human history only, 130 million books were published. While the number may not seem big, it is not a small amount compared to the people who want to be great authors. Gladwell being able to accomplish his success as an author, makes him more accomplished than many others in his field; Therefore making him an outlier. According to “Outliers” in the epilogue, Gladwell talks about how he became an outlier because of extrinsic factors Gladwell was able to become an outlier. There are several extrinsic factors

The brain is one of the most complex, unknown organs of the human body. Researchers often break down the characteristics of the brain to whether tendencies are achieved through nurtured environments or the inheritability of genetics. Intelligence is one of the most controversial topics when it comes to deciding whether environment or genetics are most influential. Many argue that intelligence is based on environmental factors and the unique ability to work hard, but fail to realize the essential cognitive qualities concerning what truly defines intelligence. Although some may consider this trait as based on environment, intelligence is a cognitive attribute established by the nature of genetics.

Prompt: Write an essay that defends or challenges or qualifies Gladwell’s assertion that “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and you use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires” (Gladwell 151).

In Malcolm Gladwell's national bestseller "Outliers", Gladwell makes many intriguing assertions, one of them being "If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your imagination, you can shape the world to your desires." This statement is indeed authentic. When one is privileged with extraordinary talent and yet incorporates time and effort to improve it, that person is destined to succeed.

Chapter 6 of Matthew Gladwell’s book Outliers, there are illustrations of many family feuds. While the feuds were horrific, they were indicative of pattern which existed within the Appalachian Mountains and surrounding areas. The region was seemingly plagued by a “culture of honor” (p. 167). Because of the ancestral heritage of the “Scotch Irish”, these mountaineers were willing to fight at the slightest challenge to their reputation (p. 167). This behavior results from the need to survive, and is strengthened by the clannish ways of the people. This inevitable violent way of life is correlated to the number of murders in the South, and the implication is these murders are personal, in the same way family feuds were in previous years. Moreover

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he portrays many stories of success. He writes about many situations that produced being successful. Jeannette Walls wrote a memoir, The Glass Castle, about her crazy upbring. In doing so, she wrote about her success story. Her story proves some of Gladwell’s theories.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, believes that working at something for 10,000 hours is required to achieve mastery and become a world class expert at anything. While this is a nice way of making it seem like anyone can be successful, it is simply not true. Some people will never achieve proficiency in a domain, no matter how much practice they put into it. There are a variety of factors that play into expertise besides practice and certain domains require much less practice than the magical 10,000 hour threshold that Gladwell established.

Gladwell’s book Outliers is the most interesting book I have ever read. I say that because of the ideas that are presented and the way that he presents those ideas. He uses stories with characters to get the ball rolling of what he was to talk about. He then uses other books, professionals, and experiments to provide reasoning for his ideas. The chapter that I especially liked, and that I thought he did a good job of getting his point across in was chapter 6— “Harlan, Kentucky”. I believe in this chapter he did his best job of trying to get his point across which is, cultural background plays a bigger part in our way of living than we realize.

The novel Outliers, aims to investigate the very thing we want for our family, our students, and ourselves. For most of our lives we have believed that with hard work, anyone can achieve success. That had to be the reason that poor immigrants like Andrew Carnegie and college dropouts like Bill Gates achieved unimaginable wealth. Most of us were taught that working harder than anyone else would lead to ultimate success.

In chapter three of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discourses about IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and evidently convinced that IQs are merely digits measuring one’s intelligence that does not determine one’s chance of success. Gladwell describes the Termites, an experimental group created by Professor Lewis Terman, as having phenomenal intelligence, who unfortunately ended up earning incomes that are “not that good” (pg.89). Description-less for a minority of lines about their incomes, the short sentence served a purpose for creating an important point across readers. The important point is that no matter how brilliant a person may be, he/she might not end up successful and earning great sums. By this, Gladwell is offering readers advice that one

Outlier is defined as “something that is situated away from or classified differently from a main or related body” or “a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample”, which is the beginning to Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success. The meaning of outlier itself in relation to success symbolizes those who stand out with exceptional rates of success. The book does not necessarily cover how to become an outlier (in fact it first deams becoming an outlier is nearly impossible) but more which are the factors that have contributed to certain outliers in history on a broad spectrum of hockey players to the beatles to even the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates.

Outliers-The Story of Success is a sociological, and psychological non-fiction book, which discusses success, and the driving reasons behind why some people are significantly more successful than others. Malcolm Gladwell explains this by dividing the book into two parts, opportunity and legacy. Opportunity discusses how select people are fortunate enough to be born between the months of January through March, and also includes the idea that those who are already successful will have more opportunities to improve and become even more successful. The 10,000-hour rule proves the idea that in order to become successful in a certain skill, one must have practiced that skill for at least 10,000 hours. In addition to the 10,000-hour rule, timing

Malcolm Gladwell is a well-known journalist and non-fiction writer. In our assigned reading materials “Outliers”, Gladwell explores different social and psychological phenomena as well as their implications for businesses and individuals. Gladwell proclaims that success is shaped by external entities which certain individuals are granted precise opportunities and advantages that not everybody is given by fate. However, even though Gladwell’s theory at attaining success holds some validity, he completely avoids and excludes the value of hard-work and determination. The core of success is always within the individual which can be achieved by perseverance through difficult times and setbacks as opposed to solely capitalizing on other people’s hard work and effort.

Visualize a ball of clay, perfectly round, cold, and anxiously waiting for its potter to form it into a masterpiece. The ball is prepared for molding and the process begins. The strong hands of the potter pull the ball, squish the ball, and rubs out any imperfections. The potter brushes the newly shaped clay with glaze that seems to be dull and lacks beauty at every angle, but little does the viewer know that this pot holds secrets because their eye deceives them and doesn’t allow them to see the lively color lying beneath the surface. The potter makes yet another examination of the pot to be sure that he has erased any blemish or imperfection before gently placing it into the kiln. The kiln fires the pot allowing the pot’s colors to come through