Outliers (The Story of Success, 10th Anniversary Reissue, OUTLIERS)

Author Malcolm Gladwell · Publisher Kim Young-sa · Publication Date 2019-04-29 · ISBN 9788934995340

About the Book

An innovative book that instantly sparked an “Outliers” craze worldwide!
Malcolm Gladwell's principles of success are still valid!

Until now, when we saw people who achieved extraordinary success, surpassing the realm of ordinary individuals, we marveled at and honored their personal qualities such as intelligence, talent, passion, and effort. Malcolm Gladwell, a world-renowned journalist listed among the '10 Most Influential Business Thinkers' by the Wall Street Journal in 2008 and 'The 100 Most Influential People' by Time in 2005, argues in "Outliers" that success is greatly influenced not only by personal characteristics but also by one's environment, cultural heritage, and opportunities in time and space.

The dictionary definition of 'outlier' refers to "an object separated from or classified apart from the main body" or "a statistical observation that stands out distinctly from other samples." Malcolm Gladwell expands this meaning to broadly refer to 'people who have achieved success beyond the realm of ordinary individuals' and 'people who discovered opportunities for success and made them their own' as outliers. As an outlier himself, Gladwell overturned conventional wisdom.

Many changes have occurred in the 10 years since the Korean edition was published. We now understand that individual misfortune should be attributed to inadequacies in the social safety net rather than individual fault, and that individual success was also made possible by resources that society knowingly or unknowingly provided. It didn't take long for Malcolm Gladwell's secrets of success, dissected through the two aspects of 'special opportunities' and 'cultural heritage' beyond personal characteristics, to become a widely known principle rather than just a sensation.

In the book, he redefines the relationship between innate qualities and acquired learning, emphasizing that the time, place, and available resources allowed to individuals or groups are crucial determinants of their success or failure. Gladwell's arguments are most persuasive when discussing individuals or small, easily defined groups. He reveals why most star Canadian hockey players are born in January, February, or March. He also explains why most of the pioneers who developed computer hardware and software in the United States were born in the 1950s.

'Special Opportunities' and 'Historical and Cultural Heritage' that transcend individual talent, intelligence, effort, and passion

While innate ability is desirable, it is not sufficient for success. 'Timing' is one of the decisive factors, just as many wealthy people were born in the 1830s, and many who led the computer industry were born in the 1950s.

In the case of elite Canadian hockey players, many are born early in the year. Why is the proportion of players born early in the year, especially in the first quarter, so disproportionately high? Because youth hockey leagues divide players based on a January 1st cutoff, children born on January 1st play in the same league as children born on December 31st. It's not surprising that children born a few months earlier are more developed physically. As a result, more developed children are selected, receive more additional training, and ultimately have a higher chance of becoming elite league players.

Books about Bill Gates focus on his personal qualities and extraordinary abilities. Gladwell offers an expanded analysis by focusing on the opportunities they had. Bill Gates attended an elite private school in Seattle, and his mothers' club had the good fortune to install a time-sharing computer terminal, which most people at the time had never even heard of. If Bill Gates had attended a different high school, the computer industry today would have a dramatically different shape. The Beatles had to practice for over eight hours a day in clubs in their early days. This provided them with continuous and repetitive practice, and opportunities to try new ways of playing. By 1964, when they achieved their first success, they had accumulated approximately 10,000 hours of practice over more than a decade.

Malcolm Gladwell defines this phenomenon as the '10,000-Hour Rule.' Bill Gates also founded Microsoft after dedicating 10,000 hours to programming since he started using a shared terminal in 1968. The point is that success is incredibly complex. While innate qualities are required, much more is needed to overcome the numerous barriers to success, and an enormous amount of luck is necessary. The value of this book lies in making us look at the world a little deeper and more carefully than we have before.

Another pillar of success is 'historical factors, cultural heritage.'

Through the 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam, we can see that 'euphemism,' which involves speaking indirectly out of respect for elders, can be a major risk factor in an airplane cockpit where life and death can be decided by 'split-second' judgments. While one of our cultural elements had a negative impact on performing the modern task of piloting an airplane, there also exists a very useful cultural heritage for living in the 21st century.

Thanks to the 'rice farming culture,' we became better at math than Westerners. Among the success stories Gladwell found, no one achieved results without working harder than their peers. Before encountering tremendous luck, Bill Gates was addicted to computers, and the Beatles lived as practiceaholics in Hamburg. All successful people work hard. Working in a rice paddy is more than 10 times more labor-intensive than working in a wheat field of the same size. Descendants of farmers who wake up before sunrise and work 3,000 hours a year are the first to enter the library and study the latest. The greatest advantage of the culture formed through rice farming is finding value even in such difficult work.

Especially in mathematics, the short word length characteristic of our language when reading numbers (il, i, sam, sa, o...) further enhanced numerical memory, leading to top achievements for Asians. Gladwell demonstrates that this 'social environment' as a cultural heritage can be a major factor driving miraculous success in the 21st century.


The best business and cultural book of our time that reveals 'the secrets of success and wealth of the top 1%!'
The true outlier is not the individual, but the culture!

Professor In-cheol Choi of Seoul National University's Department of Psychology summarized the challenges and messages that "Outliers" throws to Korean society as follows:

First, it presents the fact that we too can become 'outliers' and specific methods for doing so. It claims that anyone can become an outlier by working for at least 10,000 hours in their field. While 10,000 hours might not seem like much, if we assume practicing for 3 hours every single day, it's an enormous amount of time requiring 10 years of investment. Only when we dedicate 10,000 hours of effort does our brain reach its optimal state. Gladwell argues that we are trapped by a false myth about success: the myth that the best and brightest rise to the top. Therefore, when discussing people who have achieved success beyond the realm of ordinary individuals, that is, outliers, people are most curious about their intelligence. According to this myth, society measures people's IQs and selects and discriminates against people based on them. However, according to Gladwell, the primary factor needed to become an outlier is not genius talent, but incessant effort, what is known as the '10,000-hour rule.'

Second, for CEOs managing companies, it requires giving employees, and for parents raising children, it requires giving children enough time to steadily develop acquired talents and potential. Instead of judging the possibility of success based on short-term performance, it urges giving them the opportunity and waiting for them to put in 10,000 hours of effort. If they find reward, value, fun, and meaning in work or study and invest 10,000 hours, they will undoubtedly become 21st-century outliers who generate expected results.

Finally, "Outliers" asks Korean society not to simply wait for a genius who will produce Nobel Prize-winning achievements, but to provide the cultural heritage and opportunities that can create such outliers. It asks that Korean society itself become an outlier, rather than just dreaming of the appearance of outliers. This is because the true outlier is not the individual, but the culture.

Table of Contents

Foreword | A Revolutionary Discourse on Success, Deep Insights that Overturn Myths
Prologue | The Roseto Mystery

Part 1: Opportunity

Chapter 1 The Matthew Effect
"For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."
How to succeed as Mister Hockey | Throw a stone at the rules | The iron law governing Canadian hockey | The correlation between early birthdays and hockey | The devastating effect of cumulative advantage | The privilege of being the tallest child among peers

Chapter 2 The 10,000-Hour Rule
"We had to play eight hours a day in Hamburg."
From a dull student to a genius programmer | The magic number to become a true outlier | First evidence: The memory of all-night programming, Bill Joy | Second evidence: The Beatles, the secret of a differentiated band | Third evidence: Lady Luck shoots Bill Gates | Special opportunities, and the timing of the wealthy

Chapter 3 Geniuses in Crisis
"A boy's high IQ is of little help when he meets many bright boys."
The dilemma of America's smartest man | The future of a group of young geniuses | The counterintuitive correlation between intelligence and success | Where did the lost imagination go | Geniuses exist, only in dreams

Chapter 4 The Decisive Difference Between Langan and Oppenheimer
"After lengthy negotiations, Oppenheimer's suspension was decided."
Langan's miserable childhood story | The ability to announce talent, and insight | Practical intelligence, the requirement for humans loved by society | Oppenheimer, the biggest beneficiary of concerted nurturing | The record of Termite 730, the disaster of family environment | The greatest paradox of genius

Chapter 5 Three Lessons from Joseph Flom
"Mary received only 25 cents."
Success blooming amidst extreme poverty, that common story | The importance of environment, no free success | The terribly unequal reality and star lawyers | The world changed, and opportunity arose | The best era for Jews to work as lawyers in New York | The statistics of the Great Depression | The magical timing that determines success | "Honey, this is our business" | Unique technology that overwhelmed the new world | Can I change the world as I want | The most elegant and impressive family tree | The powerful combination of environment and opportunity


Part 2: Legacy

Chapter 6 The Mystery of Harlan, Kentucky
"Die like a man, like your brother!"
A bloody shootout between two families | Dark days steeped in a culture of honor | How violence responds to insult | The power of cultural heritage that survives even after its demise

Chapter 7 The Cultural Secret in Plane Crashes
"Today, we benefit greatly from weather radar."
What happened in Guam that summer | The secret of Avianca Flight 52's crash | A cockpit shrouded in heavy silence | Communication skills that determine life and death | Between a passing remark and an emergency | The battle against euphemism | Structural problems more important than mistakes | The correlation between cultural characteristics and crash accidents | Minor malfunctions, weather, and fatigue | The discovery of a factor greater than the three factors | The path from failure to success | Go-around again

Chapter 8 Why Asians are Better at Math
"If one can rise before sunrise all year, how can one not become rich?"
Rice is life | The secret of Koreans', Chinese', and Japanese' mathematical ability | Rice farmers working 3,000 hours a year | Are rice farmers inherently diligent? | The process of learning math | Attitude is more important than talent | The surprising correlation between rice farming culture and math skills

Chapter 9 The Amazing Opportunity that Came to Marita
"All my friends I meet now are KIPP kids."
The public school New York loves | Should effort and rest go hand in hand | The harms of long summer vacations and the lesson of rice farming culture | The child who cried over math now majors in accounting? | Into the unglamorous daily life | Dreaming of Marita's miracle in the 21st century

Epilogue | A Story from Jamaica
Translator's Afterword | That Small Difference that Separates Ordinary People from Extraordinary People
References
Index

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