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For my BLA my group and I read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. The book focused on the stories of successful people in our past and what it was that made them successful. Gladwell's stories ranged from why the Beatles are successful to why the greatest hockey players are all born at the beginning of the year. There was not really a common factor to every successful person he mentioned but Gladwell did give numerous examples for many of the "variables" that contribute to a successful human. The book was split into two parts: opportunity and legacy. Gladwell also mentioned that it is important to focus on not what a successful person is like but where they come from. The second part of the book focused more on the cultural aspects of successful people while the first part was based purely on opportunity/luck.
As mentioned Gladwell's book focused on a number of important people in our world. Because it was difficult to find one documentary about "successful" people my group and I decided to focus on one particular story. We decided to watch a documentary on Bill Gates and see the similarities and differences in how he was portrayed in the book vs. the documentary.
In the book, Gladwell focused primarily on the beginning of Bill Gates' career. Bill Gates was in the part about opportunity so a lot of focus was put on the opportunities that Gates got. Gladwell put a lot of emphasis on the a young Bill Gates and the head start he got at his high school. As an upperclassman in High School, a mother's club donated a software/teletype to the school for the kids to use. Gates and his friends spent a ton of time in that room often until about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. After a few years, it was estimated that Gates had reached the 10,000 hour mark- the "expert" number. Gladwell said that anybody who practiced an instrument for roughly 10,000 hours became an expert. Many studies have been done on the elite piano players, or the elite athletes and usually they all have one thing in common; how much they practice. They all usually practice for upwards of 10,000 hours of their life and that is exactly what Gates did. Those 10,000 hours were what made Gates successful in the eyes of Malcom Gladwell.
I decided to compare this to how Gates was portrayed in the documentary. The teletype was mentioned in the documentary but only in passing. They mentioned that Gates spent much of his free time in that room, plugging away at software, but how much time was actually spent was never mentioned. This particular story (the most important one according to Gladwell) was only mentioned for a brief 2-3 minutes in the documentary. The rest of the time, the documentary focused on what happened AFTER Gates had dropped out of Harvard and AFTER he had already practiced for 10,000 hours.
I may be a little biased because I have just finished reading the book but I think the time that Gates spent in the computer room was incredibly important to the success he is currently experiencing. The documentary leads people to believe that Bill Gates is just naturally smart and he got all this success randomly. But, Outliers really focuses on the root of what made Gates the billionaire that he is today and that is the opportunity. The teletype and the 10,000 hours spent in that room is the key to what made Gates successful. Without all the practice he might not have ever been able to do the things he later did. If the Mother's club hadn't donated the teletype well then Gates would have never discovered his love of software and would have gone on to become a lawyer like his parents wanted him to.
I personally think that the book does a better job at getting to the root of what makes people successful. Most documentaries and films and other books make it seem like all these people are just naturally smart, and naturally have all these abilities but in most cases that is not true. There is some great opportunity hiding in the history of that person and Malcolm Gladwell does a great job at figuring out the root of successful people. I really enjoyed the book and think that everybody should read it because the facts and ideas that Gladwell brings up are just so crazy and hard to believe but when you really think about them they are true and can be applied to most successful people!
As mentioned Gladwell's book focused on a number of important people in our world. Because it was difficult to find one documentary about "successful" people my group and I decided to focus on one particular story. We decided to watch a documentary on Bill Gates and see the similarities and differences in how he was portrayed in the book vs. the documentary.
In the book, Gladwell focused primarily on the beginning of Bill Gates' career. Bill Gates was in the part about opportunity so a lot of focus was put on the opportunities that Gates got. Gladwell put a lot of emphasis on the a young Bill Gates and the head start he got at his high school. As an upperclassman in High School, a mother's club donated a software/teletype to the school for the kids to use. Gates and his friends spent a ton of time in that room often until about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. After a few years, it was estimated that Gates had reached the 10,000 hour mark- the "expert" number. Gladwell said that anybody who practiced an instrument for roughly 10,000 hours became an expert. Many studies have been done on the elite piano players, or the elite athletes and usually they all have one thing in common; how much they practice. They all usually practice for upwards of 10,000 hours of their life and that is exactly what Gates did. Those 10,000 hours were what made Gates successful in the eyes of Malcom Gladwell.
I decided to compare this to how Gates was portrayed in the documentary. The teletype was mentioned in the documentary but only in passing. They mentioned that Gates spent much of his free time in that room, plugging away at software, but how much time was actually spent was never mentioned. This particular story (the most important one according to Gladwell) was only mentioned for a brief 2-3 minutes in the documentary. The rest of the time, the documentary focused on what happened AFTER Gates had dropped out of Harvard and AFTER he had already practiced for 10,000 hours.
I may be a little biased because I have just finished reading the book but I think the time that Gates spent in the computer room was incredibly important to the success he is currently experiencing. The documentary leads people to believe that Bill Gates is just naturally smart and he got all this success randomly. But, Outliers really focuses on the root of what made Gates the billionaire that he is today and that is the opportunity. The teletype and the 10,000 hours spent in that room is the key to what made Gates successful. Without all the practice he might not have ever been able to do the things he later did. If the Mother's club hadn't donated the teletype well then Gates would have never discovered his love of software and would have gone on to become a lawyer like his parents wanted him to.
I personally think that the book does a better job at getting to the root of what makes people successful. Most documentaries and films and other books make it seem like all these people are just naturally smart, and naturally have all these abilities but in most cases that is not true. There is some great opportunity hiding in the history of that person and Malcolm Gladwell does a great job at figuring out the root of successful people. I really enjoyed the book and think that everybody should read it because the facts and ideas that Gladwell brings up are just so crazy and hard to believe but when you really think about them they are true and can be applied to most successful people!
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