1.12.2009

Outliers: Review Haiku


Gladwell pokes a privileged
thumb in Horatio
Alger's hard-work eye.


Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Little Brown, 2008, 309 pages.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I beg to differ.
Gladwell is brilliant. This book
is a new classic.

Gladwell *says* that he
relies on the research of
others. Not "poking".

He make the research
relatable to people.
There's no harm in that!

EM said...

Oh, I liked it -- I wasn't suggesting Gladwell was necessarily wrong. I just meant that his thesis was in direct opposition to the standard "hard work/pull yourself up by your bootstraps" thinking espoused by Alger, among others.

Unknown said...

Ah okay, right -what was interesting to me about his hypothesis was that it's basically impossible to determine what will make one successful until after it's already happened. If only he had included some sort of instructions or something to make sure it happens for you! I don't think Outliers necessarily negated Alger's research -just that Gladwell suggests it's not *solely* about hard work.

EM said...

Yeah, the Joe Flom example epitomized what you're talking about.