A brief reflection

Reflection on Outliers

The science of success. Is there anything deeper than simple hard work, determination, and dedication? In the book “Outliers” by Malcomb Gladwell clears up any confusion about the science of success that you may have had prior to reading. 

The summer of Junior year, a time to be lazy, carefree, and freak out about a book you must read and annotate. The above sums up my summer. I’ll never forget where I was. Sitting in my makeshift room in my grandparents house I had a faint thought about summer reading. I passed off the idea at first. Would I really have been assigned more than one book this year for summer reading. I debated with myself, self convincing not to check online but after about thirty minutes of self-dispute I decided to do so. I was in for quite the rude awakening. I had less than a month before my summer had ended and I most certainly did not want to spend it reading a stupid book on the study of success. I went through denial first, then anger, and finally acceptance. By the  time I had picked up the book I had given up and decided to just get it over with. I opened the first page and began to read.

When I first got into it I thought quite a bit of the book. The Roseto Study proved to be of quite some interest to me. It had opened a world of new ideas to me. “What if our heritage is what makes us... us?” My new ideas were soon crushed by the next chapter, The 10,000 Hours Rule. “Wait a second, so our heritage makes us successful but we also have to work our butts off to get there?” The book was starting to come together. It was all making sense. Our surroundings give us our work ethic, which give us the will to master our trades and become successful. The lightbulb had illuminated. The book was starting to make sense. At this point Outliers had started to become repetitive. The themes were all reoccurring and painfully easy to find. Gladwell began beating this figurative horse. I understood how cultural heritage and the right opportunities from those around you decide where you will go in life. Now the literary work was no longer sending a message but rather adding as much supporting evidence as possible until the reader wanted to gauge his eyes out. 

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That is the saying.  The slow decline of the quality of the work had profound effects on my the way I thought. As the book got worse, I got better. The boredom that accompanied the reoccurring themes brought me to scour the book for new themes that I may not have caught the first time. I became slightly obsessed. I thought about my surroundings and my cultural heritage. I went to bed thinking about the book. I thought of how to improve my chances. I was striving to be the definition of an Outlier. I substituted mindless dramas and other TV shows for educational readings and articles of interest. I began to apply the book to real life scenarios. Through my boredom, entertainment was achieved. 

The work Outliers is a book of layers, a book of levels, a book of stages. There is a message sent to the reader. This message is not expressed as part of the book but rather as an interpretation of the book. Gladwell subliminally wants you to analyze your surroundings. He wants to make you aware. The statistical way of thinking brought forward by Gladwell is beneficial when wanting to change the self. This is his goal. He wants you to sit back and think about your life, your work, and your heritage and be grateful. This is a sign of true literary mastery. The writer is not trying to tell the writer a story but rather to change the writer and inspire him to create his own story.