Kyle Shepherd
Mr. Thomas
AP Seminar
September 30, 2019
Outliers Writing Assessment
“What makes success?” Outliers: The Story of Success is an attempt to answer this
question. The bestselling book’s author Malcom Gladwell is a Canadian journalist and public
speaker, whose work since 1996 has been focused on sociology, psychology, and social
psychology. Published in 2008, Outliers inspects the elements that react to create a high degree
of success – an outlier in society. As Gladwell defines in the first pages of the book, an outlier is
“something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body.”
Throughout the book, Gladwell uses the stories of people and the specific factors the either held
them from or brought them to success as evidence to support his arguments. The first half
Outliers: The Story of Success, titled “Opportunity,” holds that accumulative advantage, access
to a lot of practice, and practical intelligence are three indispensable contributions to success.
The “Matthew Effect,” established by sociologist Robert Merton, states that those who
are ahead are more likely than those who are behind to be given the tools to get even farther
ahead. Sociologists generally refer to this phenomenon as “accumulative advantage” – an
advantage that, over time, creates a huge gap between the successful and unsuccessful. More and
more opprotunities are given to those with the initial advantage. To exemplify this, Gladwell
uses a pattern he found in professional hockey players: most were born in the first months of the
year. As Gladwell explains, during youth, the ones born in the beginning of the year had
developmental advantages over the others born in the same year. These players had an edge over
the others, outdid them, and thus were given more attention (e.g. playing time and better
training). They moved onto better teams, often leaving the others behind. Eventually, the
difference in performance between those born in the beginning of the year and the rest grew
wider, and the younger ones slowly dropped out. The developmental advantages of the slightlyolder players were opportunities that were exploited and simply made them more successful in
the end.
Another outside concept that Gladwell uses in his argument for success-making is based
on a study by Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson. The theory, called “10,000-Hour Rule”,
holds that it takes ten-thousand hours of proper practice to achieve mastery. Gladwell uses this
“practice makes perfect” notion as the basis of the many examples he provides. Ten-thousand
hours is a great amount of time to which Gladwell recognizes that only a very, very fortunate
person would to have access – through a perfect combination of unrelated factors. For example,
Gladwell cites the success of the Beatles, dubbed by many “the best band of all time.” He
discusses the early years of the Beatles, highlighting how the band performed over twelve
hundred times, before they found their first great success, an opportunity most artists don’t get in
their entire careers. Next, Gladwell tells the story of Bill Gates, who had unprecedented access,
from eighth grade and throughout all of high school, to computers for programming. And this
was during a time in which computer access was new and rare. Gates’s high school, it’s location
and monetary abilities, and the demand in the computer programming workforce allowed young
Gates to easily hit over ten-thousand hours of practice, setting him on course to become one of
the richest people in the history of the planet.
A third ingredient that Malcom Gladwell uses in his recipe for success in Outliers is
practical intelligence – that is, the ability of individuals to find the best fit between themselves
and the demands of the environment. According to Gladwell, practical knowledge is “knowledge
that helps you read situations correctly and get what you want.” He distinguishes practical
intelligence from general intelligence; while one is born with the latter, the former must be
learned from one’s environment, such as his or her family. Gladwell cites a study of third
graders conducted by sociologist Annette Lareau. Relating the results of the study to his stance,
Gladwell argues that one child has a greater chance at success than another does, not because of
his parents’ education or economic status, but instead because of the resulting attitude of
entitlement he learned – one perfect for thriving in the modern world. Next, Gladwell establishes
that, in an individual, practical intelligence and general analytic intelligence are unrelated; the
presence of one does not indicate or guarantee that of other. However, he does conclude that the
presence of both is a key marker of a successful person. To exemplify this, Gladwell compares
the success of two people, both labeled “geniuses”, Chris Langan (IQ of 195) and Julius Robert
Oppenheimer (IQ of 195). While both faced obstacles in their lives, Oppenheimer went on to
become known as “the father of the atomic bomb” and Langan only achieved the title “smartest
man in America.” According to Gladwell, though Langan and Oppenheimer reportedly shared
the same IQ, Langan lacked the practical intelligence that led Oppenheimer, who was from a
wealthy upbringing unlike Langan, to success.
“What makes success?” According to the arguments presented by Malcom Gladwell in
Outliers: The Story of Success, success is a made by being born in the first months of the year,
performing over twelve-hundred times, and having more than just the highest IQ in America.
Such as in hockey, initial advantage accumulates overtime, creating the separation between the
successful and the others. Additionally, a rare and incredible amount of practice shapes the
masters, such as the Beatles and Bill Gates. And lastly, as seen in comparing two “geniuses”
Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer, analytical intelligence doesn’t mean much on the path to
success without the practical knowledge to navigate the world. As presented in Outliers, these
are the factors – the rare, coincidental, and perfect opprotunities – that make a successful person.