Rating: 3.125 Pierogies
Review: My friend, Sandy, and I listened to Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" on CD on our long drive to and from Philly. In Outliers, Gladwell examines incredibly successful people, and explores what, beyond innate talent, has led them to be so incredibly successful. We're not talking about "has a good job and is making a good salary" successful, Gladwell is more concerned with the Bill Gates and The Beatles level of success.

The premise of Outliers boils down to: Incredible success is made up of (1) talent, (2) hard work, and (3) access to the right kind of opportunities to lead to that success. Bill Gates as a child, for example, had a passion for programming, but also access to a computer which was highly unusual for a schoolkid in 1968, and was also exploring programming at a time where there was still a lot of that territory to be explored and developed.


On one hand, Outliers was incredibly depressing to me. It made me feel helpless in my own success (or lack thereof), by making success so heavily reliant on access to unique opportunities. On the other hand, it made me feel more secure in not being a prodigy in something or another. My lack of Bill Gates level success isn't for lack of effort or intelligence, but for lack of those lucky opportunities.
Gladwell is an engaging storyteller, and did an excellent job of bringing his case studies to life. He also has a nice, soothing voice which made his reading of this book on CD very enjoyable. I recommend this book as a good poolside nonfiction, but it will leave you wanting more if you are seeking hard academic writing.