Chunk 1: "Knowledge of a boy's IQ is of little help if you are faced with a formful of clever boys."

Malcolm Gladwell in his new book, Outliers argues that there is something wrong with how people view success. Through the uses of anecdotes, statistics and data Gladwell claims that the true story of success is very difficult. No one starts from nothing and becomes a multi-millionaire. Their surroundings help them became good at what they do. That is why certain people become successful more than other people who are as equally as capable as the person who is very successful. In his introduction he introduced what motivates him to write the book. Stewart Wolf and other researchers tried to understand the health of a certain group of people called the Roseto. They eventually discovered that Roseto living in Pennsylvania had a death rate of 3o to 35 percent lower than expected from all causes. The researchers thought it was because of their eating habits, exercising, etc; however, they found out that the Roseto had bad eating habits, they were heavy smokers, and were struggling with obesity. The reason why they had such good health was because of their close knit environment. Gladwell states, “In Outliers, I want to do for our understanding of success what Stewart Wolf did for our understanding of health.” Gladwell further goes on to state that if people want to know how people thrive, then people should append more time looking around the them such as their birthday, the year they were born in , and the unique opportunities they gain. A person has an advantage if they get unique opportunities that everyone else does not get. Through these opportunities people get more practice than others which makes them the best at what they do. Cutoff dates also give people advantages and others disadvantages. In sports the best players are born in between January and March, while the others barely have a chance to become the best player because they have one less year to practice due to the cutoff date. Gladwell claims that the people who are successful have an “accumulative advantage” over other people.
Discussion Questions
Clarification: When Gladwell talks about successful people, does he mean that all successful had an advantage and that is why they are successful and others are still living an average life?
Application: Do you think it is possible to change the standards of our society so everyone will have an equal chance to become successful?
Style: Does Gladwell's anecdotal writing style make his claim more believable or does he lose his credibility when he uses different anecdotes?