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|  | Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
List Price: $27.99
Buy New: $11.75
as of 11/23/2009 11:42 CST details
You Save: $16.24 (58%)
New (97) Used (50) Collectible (13) from $10.99
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  788 reviews
Sales Rank: 34
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316017922
Dewey Decimal Number: 302
EAN: 9780316017923
ASIN: 0316017922
Publication Date: November 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 788
 Another Winner October 30, 2009
Nathan C. Damweber
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Gladwell does it again. This book made me miss the rich cultural history of the Lower East Side.
 Not as good as Tipping Point October 29, 2009
opinionated doc (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Gladwell's argument is too one-sided. Perhaps because he is a journalist or perhaps because he is attempting to refute 100's of "great man who came from nothing" stories, he ignores ambition and downplays all other aspects of success except lucky breaks and 10,000 hours of practice. That seems to me just as overly simplistic as basing success entirely on intelligence (whether social or IQ).
Of course, since cultural biases identification is also an important aspect of this book- I should admit that I am Southern. I am also a pacifist, an academic and a physician. So I do find the supposition (based on 19th century Appalactia and some 1970's frat boys) that I come from a culture of violence based on insulted honor- well insulting.
Enjoyable reading and makes you think! October 29, 2009
Senior executive (Chicago, IL)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Written with fascinating anecdotes, the author attempts to uncover why some people achieve extraordinary success. Gladwell is a masterful story teller and within a few pages, you feel like you are in a one-on-one conversation with the author. But what is success? Is it winning 51% of the time? Is it achieving your goals? Is it being the best in your field of endeavor? These are questions you will find yourself thinking about as you rummage through the pages. Although I didn't receive any practical tools to increase my chances for success, I do support his idea that success is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. ie. 10,000 hours of preparation coupled with the right opportunity at the right time, will create extraordinary success. But, what if the person has a subconscious self-sabotaging dynamic? Will that person become an Outlier? Read this remarkable book to determine your own answers.
With this said, I recommend Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self to discover the difference between mediocre, extraordinary and optimal thinking and how to use optimal thinking to obtain the best results. I also thoroughly recommend the Optimal Thinking 360 Online Assessment to discover your dominant level of thinking, core motivation and how to create optimal solutions with those who cross your path.
Thoroughly enjoyable & informative October 28, 2009
R. Yung
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just finished Outliers, and I really enjoyed it. Gladwell's insights into the everyday things we take for granted are not only interesting and entertaining, but informative. I can't wait to read his next work.
Perceptions... October 27, 2009
L.Roche (Seattle,WA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Most people perceive "Outliers" as a book that highlights a logic behind success that has more to do with a legacy and opportunity than a high IQ.
Let's rephrase this a bit. "Outliers" are observations of the writer in relation to why some people are able to score financial success while others, with apparently higher intelligence, must bite the dust. The book is about Financial success.
The underlying force that makes a financial success is the need of every human being for a system of support and guidance. The success stories show a silent sustenance of an intelligence, usually older person(s) totally supporting the endeavors of the one that becomes the financial success the book speaks of.
It does make wonder whether humans are puppets on a string played against each other in the arena of Earth by some subconscious force basically our own; the average person has very little knowledge of, how it works, how it fits together with the conscious, and part of the collective mindset. Emotional intelligence has more to do with it than a High IQ. Would "Bill Gates = Microsoft" be an entity without his parents and friends?
One such remarkable observation is a passage on page 142 - 9.:
"Jewish immigrants like the Floms and the Borgenichts and the Janklows were not like the other immigrants who came to America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Irish and the Italians were peasants, tenant farmers from the impoverished countryside of Europe. Not So with the Jews. For centuries in Europe, Jews had been forbidden to own land, so they had clustered in cities and towns, taking up urban trades and professions.
70% of the Eastern European Jews who came through Ellis Island in the 1930s or before WWI had some kind of occupational skill."
A fact of American History often ignored.
Whether birth-dates are crucial to become a hockey star is debatable...this has more to do with the cut-off dates imposed by the organizers and where each person's individual birth date is in relation of these cut-off dates.
The same is applicable in the field of education: to enter a class where automatically, as a result of your birth date, you are the oldest of the class, enjoying the opportunities of your maturity that makes learning an easy ride versus a person with a birth date that makes him/her the youngest of the class and a possibility of showing problems with both maturity and comprehension.
As the saying goes: "Your environment can make or break you". The book shows the importance of the environment in which one is born, a support system that comes in many shapes and forms, to facilitate automatically failure or success. "Outliers" is a great read for any parent or educator with adequate documentation.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 788
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