My first reaction while reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers was, “well, duh.” I was not learning anything new. Yes, Mr. Gladwell can tell an interesting story. Gladwell can tell a story in such a way that it may sound very important. Gladwell’s important-sounding stories are indeed very convincing to the masses, but he didn’t fool me. The stories were not exceptional. His point, if he even had one at all, was duller than a butter knife. I’m not sure exactly what his point was, however, because he vacillated between quite a few, including:
a) Exceptional people really just got lucky
b) Working hard and seizing opportunity can make you exceptionally successful
c) Anyone can be successful if they can get a little lucky
d) Humility is good
e) We should offer luck (and a chance to work nonstop) to all the people of the world
f) No one is really special
As the book went on, the situation got worse. The parading anecdotes refused to march to the same beat, or even on the same Street! I kept reaching and reaching to grasp some tangible point, but eventually I gave up. I felt like a kid on the carousel at Nunley’s repeatedly trying to grab the brass ring to no avail. This, however, was worse. At least at Nunley’s, I knew my Dad would eventually grab the damn thing for me and tell me to put it in my pocket. With Outliers, you can’t know where or how you might end up as Gladwell’s examples are out lying all over the place – in left field, in the underbrush, in la la land, under the bleachers, et cetera.
For all the fuss over this author, I really hope that his other books were better than this one. I don’t seem to be the only one who thinks so. The New York Times had this to say:
Mr. Gladwell's latest book, employs this same recipe, but does so in such a clumsy manner that it italicizes the weaknesses of his methodology. The book, which purports to explain the real reason some people -- like Bill Gates and the Beatles -- are successful, is peppy, brightly written and provocative in a buzzy sort of way. It is also glib, poorly reasoned and thoroughly unconvincing. Much of what Mr. Gladwell has to say about superstars is little more than common sense. (Kakuyani, 2008)
And from the Christian Science Monitor:
Gladwell's arguments aren't airtight. His theories raise chicken-and-egg questions about which came first, talent or opportunity, and don't explain why some people take full advantage of opportunities while others do not.
By downplaying the importance of ability or merit in favor of cultural influences, Gladwell not only cheats successful people of full credit for their focus and drive, but, perhaps comfortingly, absolves individuals of some of the responsibility for their failures. (McAlpin, 2008)
And finally, most scathingly, The Weekly Standard said this:
Too frequently one reads Gladwell's anecdotes, case studies, potted social-science research and thinks: interesting if true. Yet one feels naggingly doubtful about its truth quotient. So much Gladwell writes that is true seems not new, and so much he writes that is new seems untrue. Preponderantly, what he reports feels more like half- and quarter-truths, because they do not pass the final truth test about human nature: They rarely, that is, honor the complexity of life.
The first step in the bestseller formula is to tell people something that they want to hear. Gladwell tells his readers that, with a few sensible alterations-- a nip here, a tuck there in society's institutions, throw in a bit of persistence and lots of practice--everyone has a shot at success such as that achieved by the Beatles, Bill Gates, J. Robert Oppenheimer, you name him. In prose that never lingers over complication, he explains that life is fairly simple; no great mystery about it. Nothing cannot be explained, nothing not changed, nothing not improved. Knowledge is ever on the march. Life need no longer be unfair. Utopia is at hand, ours, with the aid of social science, to seize. (Epstein, 2009)
How this book can relate to libraries, technology, and social media is almost as tough to pin down as Gladwell’s overarching theme. The book is sure to be held by many libraries, and checked out many, many times. The relation to technology is a bit easier to decipher. As we become comfortable with the world of 2.0 and begin a foray into the world of 3.0, it would be wise for us to encourage our youngsters to seize the opportunity at hand, and get in the magic number of hours they need to all become little Mozarts, Gates, Joys and Jobs at the new skills they will need in order to “Outlie” amongst their generation in the next wave of innovation and technology. Perhaps this is where libraries can come in – to help provide a setting in which little future outliers can practice and learn prodigiously. Social media perhaps can be part of Gladwell’s utopian flavored vision of providing luck and opportunity to all. It’s free, it’s public, and it is a forum in which the little outliers can produce prolifically – in fact, to no end. Though then again, it may be tough to lie outside of infinity
References
Epstein, Joseph. "Jack-Out-of-the-Box; Malcolm Gladwell, explainer." The Weekly Standard 9 Mar.
2009. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.
Kakutani, M. (Nov 18, 2008). It's True: Success Succeeds, And Advantages Can
Help. The New York Times, 158, 54498. p.C1(L). Retrieved October 25,
2010, from Academic OneFile via Gale:
userGroupName=cuny_queens
McAlpin, H. (2008). Wired for success. The Christian Science Monitor (Eastern edition), 100, 13-14.
Retrieved from Article Citation database October 25th, 2010.
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