Overall, I felt that Gladwell's Outliers provided a much needed alternative perspective on success and how society sees it. My favorite part of the novel was chapter 1, where Gladwell begins with a seemingly unrelated story about a Canadian hockey player's rise to fame. At first, the story seems pretty simple: a man from Canada who has been playing hockey since he was a child gained notoriety from his hard work and pure talent. But then Gladwell presents a question: Is the success only from hard work and perseverance? When he continues on to present data from psychologist Roger Barnesly on how most professional hockey players are born in January because they miss the junior league cutoff age and gain an extra year of hockey training, I discovered that things can much more complicated than they seem. Because these kids earn one more year of hockey training due to them being born after the cutoff date on January 1, they get more time to get better at hockey than other kids born before January 1. These better trained kids supplied with "hidden advantages" get scouted and turn into professional players.
When I read this I realized that because of a simple issue like a cutoff date, so many kids are being cheated out of becoming something great, no matter how hard they work. Competing against kids a year older with one more year of training is not fair to the kids who had the unfortunate complication of being born before January 1. The younger kids could try the hardest they could but would probably not succeed in hockey. I believe this chapter efficiently set the tone for the whole novel. We needing to stop "clinging to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit." While it is unfair that one doesn't reach success based only on their own virtue, I recognize that other events do play a part in our accomplishments.
Reading this chapter it amazed me how something so simple as your birthday can effect your success. I agree that many children are being cheated out of success because of a cut off date. Simply because their birthday is at the end of the year, they are being denied of an opportunity at success. This book helped open my mind to the idea that success isn't only about the skill but also the opportunity that is presented.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was indeed very fascinating. I feel that it is very unfortunate that the younger kids don't have the opportunity to prove how great they can be at hockey because the spotlight is always on the older kids. It is definitely unfair that no matter how hard the younger kids work, they don't get as much attention as the older kids and don't get extra training like the older kids do. The fact that society does this just proves that we don't give everyone an equal chance to become successful. In order to become successful, you must have a certain advantage and that advantage has nothing to do with your ability to do good on that sport. It just happens that if you are lucky enough to be born in the first three months of the year, you will be successful in hockey.
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