Book review: The Outliers

  
So the book "Outliers; the story of success" by Malcom Gladwell is basically the science behind the becoming successful. This is a  book that tells the story about how people become successful not because of a single reason, – but usually a combination of a large number of these.


So here are a few things that still linger in my head...


The 10,000 Hour Rule:
According to the book, you can become a master at anything as long as you practice it 10,000 hours. No body can be naturally good at something. People who are "gifted" usually had some kind of practice in the past which makes them very good at that specific thing.  He gives examples and studies to prove this idea. 
The examples include people such as Bill Gates, The Beatles, and many others, making it a very interesting book.


 It is not just the 10,000 hour rule that determines success. Luck is needed when it comes to great success. Gladwell examines when the programming geniuses were born. If Bill Gates was born 5 years later, it would have been too late for him to succeed with computer programing. Instead if Bill Gates was born 5 years earlier, he would have probably been busy with his family rather than computer programming.  


Being smart isn't always the way to success
Sometimes "practical" knowledge is better than book smarts, and Gladwell describes why.
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Sometimes the Gladwell's theory can be a bit hard to understand. Even so, every statement is backed by some kind of data and is very convincing. It has given me a different view of what becoming successful really is. This book is definitely something worth reading.