What is an outlier? Statistics defines it as something that is out of the normal range and is considered insignificant to the data set when looking at general trends.
What Gladwell argues in his book Outliers: The Story of Success is that an outlier IS significant—it’s where the “normal rules [do] not apply” (7). Being an outlier is something literally extraordinary--out of the ordinary--and aren’t they significant?
Gladwell aims to examine why people who are out of the ordinary—these outliers—are so successful.
Gladwell argues that many of these perceived “outliers” are not really outliers at all and are, instead, conforming to what one would expect given the circumstances surrounding them.
For instance, he examines a hockey team and finds something strange--the majority of the players were born in the first few months of the year. He then looks further and sees that those who are born in the first few months of the year, go to kindergarten later--at or near age 6--and not at age 5 due to the cutoff date at the end of the year (between September and December depending on the school). And, as a result, the older child has had more of a time to mature. In kindergarten and other elementary school years, children are then separated by “ability grouping” (28) and tracked into those classes. Really though, Gladwell argues that the majority of students are grouped based on maturity.
I remember those groups when I was a kid, but the interesting thing is I was born on August 13th. The cutoff date to enroll at my school was September 1st.
So, I turned 5 in August and then, 20 days later, I had my first day of kindergarten. But the weird thing is, I was in the high level reading group and, later on, placed in the higher level math group as well. So, I was truly grouped by ability rather than maturity.
I am an outlier.
I never really realized that I was different in any way--except that I was the shortest kid in my class and I was not very strong.
Perhaps because I was the shortest and, probably physically weakest kid in my class, I realized I could not be the tallest or the strongest. But, I could read a lot and work really hard. Now that I think on it, it was likely a subconscious coping strategy.
I am not really sure what to attribute to my success—because—as evidenced by Gladwell’s examples comparing geniuses—clearly intelligence and achievement are unrelated to each other (90). I remember some of my classmates asking me when I was younger how I was so smart. I would respond that anyone could do what I do--I use my resources, I am persistent, I do my best, and I work hard.
I did not think I was smart and honestly, even now, I really don’t think that I’m any smarter than most people. I just have this internal drive to be successful and I am not afraid of hard work.
But how did I get to be this way?
I’m honestly not sure, but I’m hoping Gladwell will be able to help me figure it out.
What Gladwell argues in his book Outliers: The Story of Success is that an outlier IS significant—it’s where the “normal rules [do] not apply” (7). Being an outlier is something literally extraordinary--out of the ordinary--and aren’t they significant?
Gladwell aims to examine why people who are out of the ordinary—these outliers—are so successful.
Gladwell argues that many of these perceived “outliers” are not really outliers at all and are, instead, conforming to what one would expect given the circumstances surrounding them.
For instance, he examines a hockey team and finds something strange--the majority of the players were born in the first few months of the year. He then looks further and sees that those who are born in the first few months of the year, go to kindergarten later--at or near age 6--and not at age 5 due to the cutoff date at the end of the year (between September and December depending on the school). And, as a result, the older child has had more of a time to mature. In kindergarten and other elementary school years, children are then separated by “ability grouping” (28) and tracked into those classes. Really though, Gladwell argues that the majority of students are grouped based on maturity.
I remember those groups when I was a kid, but the interesting thing is I was born on August 13th. The cutoff date to enroll at my school was September 1st.
So, I turned 5 in August and then, 20 days later, I had my first day of kindergarten. But the weird thing is, I was in the high level reading group and, later on, placed in the higher level math group as well. So, I was truly grouped by ability rather than maturity.
I am an outlier.
I never really realized that I was different in any way--except that I was the shortest kid in my class and I was not very strong.
Perhaps because I was the shortest and, probably physically weakest kid in my class, I realized I could not be the tallest or the strongest. But, I could read a lot and work really hard. Now that I think on it, it was likely a subconscious coping strategy.
I am not really sure what to attribute to my success—because—as evidenced by Gladwell’s examples comparing geniuses—clearly intelligence and achievement are unrelated to each other (90). I remember some of my classmates asking me when I was younger how I was so smart. I would respond that anyone could do what I do--I use my resources, I am persistent, I do my best, and I work hard.
I did not think I was smart and honestly, even now, I really don’t think that I’m any smarter than most people. I just have this internal drive to be successful and I am not afraid of hard work.
But how did I get to be this way?
I’m honestly not sure, but I’m hoping Gladwell will be able to help me figure it out.