The Matthew Effect is stating that someone coming from a successful background has an advantage of gaining and receiving opportunities. Gladwell presented his main point by referring to the hockey players and those with a birthday closer to the cutoff date, had the advantage to advance because they were older and stronger. Needless to say, that success comes with a huge pinch of luck.
Gladwell did get his point across but in a chaotic manner; he bounced from different sports to education and back to his main argument, hockey. He framed a detailed concept supported with the advantage of cutoff dates. As mentioned above, Canadian hockey leagues have a cutoff date for youth teams; January 1. Favoring all the older kids with birthdays near the cutoff, perceiving them to be stronger because they physically matured first. Which leaves all the kids with
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Which means I started school on time and my last name began with ‘B’ (seat placement), so I should’ve had an advantage over my companions. However, I didn't notice any advantages because of my foreign parents. Constantly on the move and graduated HS after attending 8 different schools; it was clear to say my parents were unfamiliar with the concept of transferring school documents. My environment affected my success because of my parents' language barrier. It set me back every time I moved, having to start over from the basics (after my 5th grade F-Cat I was set to start all advanced classes in a magnet program but we randomly moved to another state, so I started from scratch). I'm highly persuaded by Gladwell's presentation on the Matthew Effect proving to show that success isn't necessarily hard work and dedication alone. It takes a bit of luck and family attributions. When I say family attributions I mean someone born into a rich/successful family, who in hand has opportunities because of who they know, not only what they
In Chapter One of Outliers, Gladwell focuses on the way in which people who are born early in the year have advantages in certain areas over those born later. He discusses the fact that professional hockey players are disproportionately born early in the year. He says this is because they are the oldest children in their youth hockey leagues and most of the players are born in the first part of the year. They will be bigger, stronger, and better-coordinated than those born later in the year. As a result, they will get more attention, more coaching, more reinforcement, and more self-confidence.
Throughout the process of how Canadian hockey sport selects their top of the top hockey players for the Memorial Cup, Gladwell proves that these top players are successful not only because of their hard work but also because of the advantage of the earlier birth month which give them more opportunity in the competence compared to others who was born in later month of the year. Gladwell argues that the inequitable “cutoff date matter” as in “other […] areas” (33), for example in education. He urges that our society need to change the way we think of success in which “we miss opportunities to lift others” (32). He also suggests that education system should change to let children “compete” each others whose don’t
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.
Gladwell hints to his purpose of his book in demonstrating how hockey players are chosen for the nationals. The author sheds light on his view point of success: “cling to the idea that success is a simple-function of individual merit as a society don’t matter at all” (33). He addresses the issues in
Chapter 1 refers to the Bible that states that those who have will be given more while those who have not will lose that which they had. During chapter 1 Gladwell talks about the certain leverage children and sports players have in school just because they were born in a beneficial section of the year. That led them to have a positive influence for their life that only helped the more though ought there life from there. Gladwell had analyzed a comparatively unique statistic about the Canadian professional hockey leagues: 10% were born between October and December, 20% between July and September, 30% between April and June and 40% between January and March. His interpretation for this bizarre statistic is elementary: the cut-off birth date for trying out for hockey in Canada is January 1st. remarkably, from his statistics if you turn ten on January
This plays a role in the story as the author constantly tries to define how certain individuals are more successful than others. Throughout the outliers, Gladwell attempts to question how success is made from asians having a higher intelligence in math, to the months of successful hockey players, and how certain individuals succeed without studying. By looking at ways
Through certain analogies, Gladwell tries to convince the reader that opportunities matter more than anything. Talent is talent, but if you aren't given opportunities to express your talent then what good is it? One analogy that Gladwell used was the example of Chris Langan who is considered to be the smartest man in the world with his 195 IQ level almost doubling the average persons IQ level. Gladwell goes on explaining how Langan has a higher IQ than Albert Einstein. Langan who was a competitor on One Versus One Hundred reached 250,000 dollars on the show and stopped at that point because he had realized the risks of losing it all were greater than the overall benefits of staying in. Given this great opportunity Langan takes the 250,000 dollars over continuing on, which through his calculations was the better decision.
In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, his central premise is that success is not obtained the way most people think it is. We are often told that success come from sheer luck, or a triumphant rags-to-riches story. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of many successful outliers such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, The Beatles, and many more. He breaks down each story and points out what actually made that persona successful. While breaking down the story her also introduces the reader to what he believe are the actual keys to success. In the book he talks about The Matthew Theory, The 10,000 hour Rule, Practical Intelligence vs Analytical Intelligence, and Demographic Luck.
How does one reach success? In the novel Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, the main perspective of the novel is that success does not come from an individual simply by being lucky. In fact, success roots from our history, the environment we surround ourselves in, our values, and our cultural legacy. Every human being has the option of becoming successful despite a person’s disability, or the background a person comes from. Success is a gift. Gladwell describes what outliers mean to him, “Outliers are people who have been given opportunities and have the strength and presence of mind to seize them” (Gladwell 267). Malcolm Gladwell explained that often people are categorized into different groups of talent. Naturally, the group
Most people normally bring about personal qualities when they think for the main components of success. However, Malcolm Gladwell, a famous writer, contradicts the assumption of people through the book, Outliers. Gladwell insists that extrinsic factors define success rather than the personal qualities. Nonetheless, Gladwell himself goes against the topic of Outliers in his assertion about hard working “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires”. Although people should work hard to seize the opportunity for success, success actually came from extrinsic factors because opportunity of relative age gives physical and emotional advantages through appropriate timing for birth, opportunity to raise under the concerted cultivation increases one’s practical intelligence, and opportunity to fulfill 10,000 hours of practice guarantees time to achieve success at every field.
Firstly, Gladwell quickly jumps into an example of someone considered to be an outlier. This example surrounds hockey players and their success. From this, Gladwell points out a shocking reality surrounding how a person’s birthday can affect their entire life. The players are not given the same opportunities based on their birthdays, in fact those born after certain dates do not receive nearly the same amount of chances for playing and increasing their skill. This is a reality that many people would be unaware of if it were not for the expertise of Psychologist Roger Barnsely.This is even evident in the
Malcolm Gladwell introduces his readers to his story by discussing an advantage several hockey players possess that cannot be controlled by the individual. In a roster that was provided with birth months, Barnsley, a Canadian psychologist, identified that, “in any elite group of hockey players—the very best of the best—40 percent of the players will have been born between January and March” (qtd. in Gladwell 22), and the percentages decreased as the months reached the end of the year. What
The short story entitled, “Roselily” attacks the masculine agenda as it regards women the secondary beings and places them next to the men in hierarchy. The men enjoy supremacy and take relative freedom in their relationship with women, ignore and abandon them without any obligation to their duties. The sexual behavior of men highly pressurizes Roselily under the burden of four children, each by different father and the fourth one taken away by the child’s father. The men burden Roselily with motherhood and desert her. The reasons behind it might be the racial turmoil of the time but it breeds the irresponsible behavioral pattern in them and they simply drift apart.
Gun control in America is a tough business. Second amendment advocates love to flourish their rights to bear arms. However, their stubbornness is causing many unnecessary complications that could be easily solved if they would cooperate more with legislators. The need for more a more thorough background check, more rigorous restriction on purchases and less selfishness is paramount to the evolution of our country.
The Constitution, America’s four father’s greatest establishments in US history, was created to coalesce and unite the people as one, and to grant prerogatives and incontrovertible freedom for individuals. Indeed, the Constitution not only guarantee 's civil rights for all men and women, but ensures them with opportunities of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, several chains of events-the attack on the World Trade Center, the movement for gender equality, and conflicts between the majority and minority- have become the catalyst of a whole new meaning for the Constitution. In other words, with all the changes that are/has happened in the 21st century the politicians, government officials, the media, and elite authorities have/are acting upon creating regulations, laws, policies, and social norms that interfere and conflict with our constitutional rights. For this reason, the significance of the Constitution slowly evanescent through ignorance, and have led individuals to believe the Constitution is a mere quixotic theory. Although many people believe the Constitution still holds the same value it did when it first was established, some people feel their privilege of the 1st, 4th, and 14th amendments have been limited and violated as a result of external conflicts.