Outliers “If you work hard enough, assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.” In the world of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, however, this is not always the case. In his book, Malcolm believes that when we consider the success of an outlier we look at the wrong factors, such as his intelligence. Instead of the factors we see face to face, he believes we should take a closer look at the environment in which the anomaly first found itself; firstly introducing new factors that challenge the above quote and how we think about these successful people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Malcolm Gladwell begins by showing the reader the roster of a hockey team, asking if there is anything peculiar or strange about the roster. Of course, at first glance I didn't notice any oddities. The author then introduces Roger Barnsley, the psychologist who discovered the initially invisible phenomenon: Many players in the team were born in the first months of the year. The pattern remained the same no matter where Roger looked. Roger found that 10% of the world's best were born in the last three months of a year, compared to 40% of those born in the first three months of the year (Gladwell 23). The reason for this oddity was quite simple: “…the eligibility cutoff for the hockey age class is January 1st.” (Gladwell 24). As a result, it can result in an 11-month difference between who is born in January and those born in December. Therefore, those born at the beginning of the year are more physically and mentally mature than those born later, which makes them more likely to be chosen for the representative team representatives offers you a better experience below every aspect: better coaching, better teammates and more practice. The small advantage a January boy had at his age has turned into better conditions in his environment, making him more likely to reach the big leagues. This advantage can be discouraging those who were not born early, discouraging them from participating. The same effect is found in other sports teams (except basketball), and also in the school environment. Unfortunately, according to Malcolm, this phenomenon of disruption is the result of the way we as society “we think about success”. List solutions needed if these cutoff dates were recognized, such as separation by month of birth. He soon realizes that his solutions are useless, as our society is still clinging to the idea that success is based on the individual and not the “rules we choose to write as a society.” (Gladwell 33). In the next chapter, Malcolm introduces the 10,000 hour rule, a theme that recurs throughout the book. Citing numerous examples and instances in the chapter, Malcolm believes that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve world-class proficiency in anything. This point alone qualifies the first part of his statement, but as we will find out later, there is still some luck involved in achieving the success that these people had found. It begins with Bill Joy, who was interested in mathematics and engineering before he encountered the “happiest of accidents.” Bill Joy had stumbled upon the Computer Center at the University of Michigan in 1971 and was fascinated. The university was one of the first to use time-sharing, which was a huge improvement over its predecessors. It eliminated the previously used punch cards and replaced them with terminals, allowing multiple people to program at the same time. When laterwas interviewed about these computers, Bill even said that they made programming “fun”. This was the fortunate opportunity Bill Joy had while attending the University of Michigan, and he made the most of it. Bill programmed so long that he spent "more time at the Computer Center than in my classes" (Gladwell 45). He also used a bug that allowed him to bypass the normal time limits the school gave him. Thanks to his lucky chain of events, Bill Joy was able to rewrite a better UNIX and create Sun Microsystems with ease. To support his 10,000 hour rule, Malcolm uses the origin stories of the Beatles and Bill Gates. Note that the Beatles are what they are today because of Hamburg, Germany. In 1940, the high school rock band was invited to play in Hamburg. They played every day for 270 days, giving them the ten thousand hours of practice they needed to make it in the United States. Bill Gates' story is similar to that of Bill Joy, although his early upbringing is different. Bill Gates was born into a wealthy family, which gave him some advantages which will be explained later. Thanks to the school's Mothers' Club, Bill began programming with a timeshare computer in 1968, three years before Bill Joy. When the money ran out, Bill Gates continued programming in the offices of Computer Center Corporation until he went bankrupt. Later, Bill and his friends worked at Information Sciences Inc., getting free computer time to program in exchange for working on an automation program. Over a seven-month period, Bill and his team logged 1,575 hours, or an average of eight hours per day. Bill still managed to receive practice opportunities despite the main system crash, meaning he was luckier than Bill Joy. The author makes it clear to the reader that the environment an outlier grew up in can mean everything. His next topic concerns Chris Langan, considered by the media to be the smartest man in the world. Chris demonstrated his intellect several times throughout his life, including on the television show 1 vs. 100. He had a vigorous summer routine during high school, studying various topics every day. Thanks to his intelligence, he only attended school when necessary. As we later discover, however, Chris's life wasn't always like this. Chris's family was very poor, often wore shabby clothes and had little food. He had multiple fathers, three of whom died on separate occasions. His fourth father was abusive and only left the family when Chris had managed to physically knock him out. At Reed, his first college, Chris' mother forgot to fill out the family's financial statement. At Montana State, his car broke down and prevented him from attending morning classes. When he tried to get it fixed, his counselor denied Chris because of his previous performance at Reed. Both experiences ultimately discouraged him from pursuing an academic career altogether. For his brother Mark, “it made absolutely no sense to me when he left” (Gladwell 95). Although he was very intelligent and worked hard, an unfortunate chain of events prevented him from making the most of his academic potential. Malcolm notes that Chris's life story parallels that of Robert Oppenheimer, who was also considered a genius. when he was a little boy. When Robert attended Cambridge University, his tutor forced him into experimental physics instead of theoretical physics. This eventually pushed him to poison his tutor with chemicals. Instead of being criminally charged or expelled from school, Robert was strangely set free:.