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I might look into buying Outliers. Part of Gladwell's writing style has started to grate on me, but at that recommendation I suppose it's worth checking out?

by unalone 18y ago

ardit33 18y ago
yes it is worth it. i am reading it right now. I was skeptical at first, as I find books like this pretty shallow (like Freakonomics), but this one is actually good, and backed by real data in many of his points. Especially the hockey players one. The data is right there, the elephant in the room nobody really noticed it. I have had this saying: You like what are you good at, and you become good at what you like. When you start an activity/sport or something like chess at an early age, the differences between you and other kids are minor, and if you have even a small 2%-5% edge, you end up winning. And you endup liking it, and work/study/practice harder on that, and you end up really good at it later on, and your performance will be a magnitude better from those kids that were only little bit behind you. And in sports the day you were born is very important. I guess the school you go (elementary/middle school) is very important too.
neilk 18y ago
This is his best book by far. The prose style is pretty much the same, but he's got a more coherent story to tell, so you might find it less grating.
- brandnewlow 18y ago
  Yes. Gladwell likes to describe his books as intellectual adventure stories. I thought he finally delivered on the promise in Outliers. The chapter about why commercial airliners crash was actually kind of gripping. The chapter about how a moment of "evil" led to the destiny of his family changing was actually kind of moving.
trjordan 18y ago
I just finished reading it as well. He plays the same abusive games with stats and data that he does in his other books ("science by anecdote", if you will), but it's still a good read. There's a lot to be said for talent and hard work, but there's even more to be said about circumstance.
danw 18y ago
Save yourself the time and read the Ericson paper directly. Most of Outliers is based on it with anecdotes to pad it. Many of the newspaper articles about Outliers repeat the anecdotes in detail. http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.pdf http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracti...

I might look into buying Outliers. Part of Gladwell's writing style has started to grate on me, but at that recommendation I suppose it's worth checking out?

by unalone 18y ago

I might look into buying Outliers. Part of Gladwell's writing style has started to grate on me, but at that recommendation I suppose it's worth checking out?

ardit33 18y ago

yes it is worth it. i am reading it right now. I was skeptical at first, as I find books like this pretty shallow (like Freakonomics), but this one is actually good, and backed by real data in many of his points. Especially the hockey players one. The data is right there, the elephant in the room nobody really noticed it. I have had this saying: You like what are you good at, and you become good at what you like. When you start an activity/sport or something like chess at an early age, the differences between you and other kids are minor, and if you have even a small 2%-5% edge, you end up winning. And you endup liking it, and work/study/practice harder on that, and you end up really good at it later on, and your performance will be a magnitude better from those kids that were only little bit behind you. And in sports the day you were born is very important. I guess the school you go (elementary/middle school) is very important too.

neilk 18y ago

This is his best book by far. The prose style is pretty much the same, but he's got a more coherent story to tell, so you might find it less grating.

brandnewlow 18y ago
Yes. Gladwell likes to describe his books as intellectual adventure stories. I thought he finally delivered on the promise in Outliers. The chapter about why commercial airliners crash was actually kind of gripping. The chapter about how a moment of "evil" led to the destiny of his family changing was actually kind of moving.

trjordan 18y ago

I just finished reading it as well. He plays the same abusive games with stats and data that he does in his other books ("science by anecdote", if you will), but it's still a good read. There's a lot to be said for talent and hard work, but there's even more to be said about circumstance.

danw 18y ago

Save yourself the time and read the Ericson paper directly. Most of Outliers is based on it with anecdotes to pad it. Many of the newspaper articles about Outliers repeat the anecdotes in detail. http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.pdf http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracti...