Monday, May 25, 2009

Outliers - A Must Read



I read the 285 pages in less than 24 hours - a period that included packing, 5 hours in the car, and unpacking for my holiday excursion to Southampton, NY. For sure, the pages are small and it's an easy read....but how much more of an endorsement could I put forth?

The book is well reasoned, well sourced, and thoroughly coherent. I had heard criticisms before I read it, but just didn't find any obvious ones within the text. The implications of Gladwell's *theory* should have a profound effect on anyone who fancies themselves ambitious.

AND, importantly for my family, I believe the book has profound relevance for homeschoolers - even though Gladwell apparently knows nothing about our *world*.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank bro.

Also check out "Talent is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin.

Anonymous said...

If your kids turn out to be half as smart as you intend, there is no way that they are going to feign belief in catholicism, not even to appease the old man. But be sure to cram it down their throats, you can never have enough brilliant detractors when going up against a thousand year old barbaric idiocy.

The theory of Outliers is plainly wrong: why else would the atheist make 50,000 million dollars while the intelligent design advocate worked as a bouncer? True intelligence derives from the ability to perceive the world as it is, not as some medieval fantasy. Outliers isn't even remotely scientific, pure pop culture nonsense.

CaptiousNut said...

Yeah, I don't know what about my post, or the book, provoked the *religious* interpretation.

CaptiousNut said...

Thanks for the Colvin rec.

Click here to read some of him.

Taylor Conant said...

As a demonstration of the faith I put in your opinion, I just threw this (what will probably be an overly expensive) book onto my birthday wishlist that I informed my relatives of just now.

Let me tell you, I was very skeptical of the writings of a New Yorker magazine writer (FD: im a former subscriber, yuck), so this one better be good. If it is a bunch of stupid, pop intellectualism BS easily-refuteable nonsense, you're gonna pay, C... probably could've gotten two good Mises Institute books or even one 700pg Durant volume for the price of this "bestseller" garbage...

Of course, I threw it on the bottom of my list as a "hedge"... hopefully my family shoots straight for the top or decides to show their creativity/intelligence by opting for the obscure economic and history books on the list, vs. the pop culture bestseller.

CaptiousNut said...

On stocks, yes, I may steer you wrong.

Books are a whole lot easier. What was my last bad book rec?

CaptiousNut said...

Reading the Colvin book now.

Should have a post in the next week or so.