Outliers Test

Concerted Cultivation

name used to describe the parenting style of the middle and upper class. It was founded by sociologist Annette Lareau, who discovered that practical intelligence is taught by wealthier families to their children, making poorer children lack that quality. She says that upper-class parents continuously foster and are involved in their child's life to help them do their best. This is unlike the strategy of lower-class families, who allow their children to do what they want and give them independence. Concerted cultivation comes with many advantages because children are exposed to so many experiences and learn how to be confident when speaking to others. Gladwell decided to include this parenting style to show that the class children are in plays a part in their chance of success. Wealthier parents teach their children entitlement and how to speak to those of authority and get their way. Lower-class children don't have any of those skills. This highly compares to Gladwell's own definition of success because this parenting style is an example of the advantages some people have over others to succeed and Gladwell believes many factors contribute to success.

Mozart and Bobby Fischer

"Even Mozart—the greatest musical prodigy of all time— couldn't hit his stride until he had his ten thousand hours in. Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good."Mozart, often considered a "prodigy," who spent at least ten years working on one of his famous concertos. Despite the amount of time it takes to achieve greatness and complete 10,000 hours of work, Gladwell fills his book with numerous examples of famous people who reached "greatness," like Bobby Fischer, the chess champion, along with everyday people, offering encouragement for the reader to work hard and achieve those 10,000 hours.

"Rice is Life"

"Rice is life," refers to what Southern Chinese villages lived by. They had rice dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was what was sold and bought at markets. Rice was the measurement of wealth and status there as well. This was referred to by anthropologist Goncalo Santos, who studied traditional South Chinese villages. This concept was included to show why the growth of rice paddies was so important to the Chinese. It was their way of life. It was their cultural legacy to be hard workers, since their culture was based around a practice that was extremely tedious.

Chris Langan, 1 vs 100, and Summer Routine

A man with a genius level IQ (195 points) who appeared on a game show called 1 vs. 100 and was the subject of a documentary

Demographic Trough

A point in time that people are able to obtain success by during a certain thing

Ericsson's Study- Violinists and Pianists

A study orchestrated by psychologist, K. Anders Ericcson, and some colleagues at Berlin's Academy of Music divided violinists into 3 groups based on their skill level. The first group contained the students with the most potential. The second were those known to be good, and the third were those who would probably end up as a music teacher and unlikely to ever become a professional. The main question asked to the violinists was how many hours they had practiced since picking up a violin. The study found that the elite had averaged around 10,000 hours, the "good" around 8,000 hours, and the upcoming music teachers a little over 4,000 hours. Gladwell wanted his readers to see these statistics to show where practice gets a person and how different levels of hard work have different outcomes of success. This study was also performed on amateur and professional pianists with corresponding results. Ericsson found out that out of all of the musicians in the study, none of them were "naturals", and the only thing that divided the groups were the hours they put in. Gladwell concludes by saying that those who apply hard work and time into a skill are those who will succeed, relating this message to his own understanding of success.

Ratwatte, Suren

A veteran pilot who had been involved in human factors research, Ratwatte explained the Avianca flight mistakes in detail. He explained that the 707 they were flying took a lot of strength, and that the silence heard over the black box was odd, and that the lack of fuel shouldn't aroused more worry. Ratwatte also told of back when he was a pilot and once had to land heavy. Gladwell uses Ratwatte as a credible voice of the Avianca flight, but also to show everything a pilot needed to avoid crashing.

Accumulative advantage

Accumulative Advantage is when a small advantage at the beginning of something, such as kindergarten, becomes a little difference that leads to an opportunity that makes a bigger difference a bit bigger, and that edge in turns leads to another opportunity, which makes that initial small difference even bigger

Cultural Legacies

Cultural legacies are referring to how people are prone to act and or be because of their past culture. For instance, if you were born in the appalachians, it is your cultural legacy to be violent. Gladwell included this concept as his main idea to his chapter.

Alex Williams

Alex Williams is an accurate example of cultural advantage. He is a nine year old, African American boy who grew up in the hands of wealthy parents. Gladwell includes Lareau's story of this boy to show what being in a wealthy class can do for your chances of achievement. Alex is on the way to the doctor with his mother, Christina, when she asks if he is concerned about anything that he wants to tell the doctor. She says, " You can ask him anything you want. Don't be shy." This remark from Christina right off the bat proves their entitlement. Christina wants his child to speak up, even if it is to an authority figure. They arrive at the doctor's office and when the doctor tells Alex about his height, Alex effortlessly interrupts him. He also proceeds to ask him why he has bumps on his arm, without doubting himself. This is an example of cultural advantage because not everyone would be that assertive. Lower-class children would be shy and may not even say a word, but because of the skills Alex has been taught, he stood up for himself. If he can obtain the full attention of his doctor, then he can in the outside world, which will help him be successful. This proves that a family in a higher class teaches their children those practical skills to have their way, opposed to the lower-class. Gladwell concurs with this because he believes children who have this advantage are more likely to succeed. Alex has more money, which gives him entitlement, and a sense of entitlement makes him more geared for success.

Bill Joy's "stream of opportunities"

At the time, computers were large, tedious and slow to use - however, his school, the University of Michigan, was the first to start using time sharing which made the process a lot faster. He also had basically unlimited access to the computer lab, which gave him a chance to easily get 10,000 hours of practice

Barry Schartz

Barry Schwartz, a psychologist, believes that elite schools don't go through the complicated admissions process, instead they seperate the students into two categories. "Good enough and not good enough", he says. Those who ARE good enough get put in a hat, while the students below the threshold get thrown out. These "elite" schools are almost entirely based on intelligence when accepting students, leaving those who have an equally strong chance of succeeding (lower iq, more creativity) out of the picture. Gladwell agrees with Schwartz because he also believes that intelligence doesn't correlate with success and a person's IQ only matters to an extent. Gladwell points out Schwartz's proposal to show that his own opinion of how success is achieved is agreed upon by experts, further validating his claim.

Bill Gates and his "happen to's"

Bill Gates was very lucky to have so many opportunities that pointed him in the direction of success. His father and mother together were wealthy which allowed Bill to switch from his public school to a private school. This is when the series of fortunate events began. His school started a computer club and was able to buy a very high tech computer for that time that allowed him to do computer programming as an eighth grader. This computer allowed Bill to excel at computer programming way ahead of others. He was offered free programming time in exchange for testing out software programs and he continued with a couple companies doing that. Once he got into highschool, Bill would hack into computers so he could have unlimited programming time. Then, he started using the University of Washington's free computer in the middle of the night when no one else was there because it was so close to his house. Throughout his highschool years, he had so many opportunities that gave him time to practice. Gladwell added all of them together to come up with 9! He had definitely practiced 10,000 hours by the time he was truly successful. Gladwell includes Bill Gates's extraordinary story to show that the most successful people aren't just where they are because of talent. Those people have opportunities and work very hard.

Canadian Hockey

Canadian hockey players born in the first months of the year enjoy advantages that those born later in the year don't have. You also write that birth month correlates closely with success in other sports. In Canada the eligibility cutoff for age-class is Jan 1. A boy who turns ten on Jan 2 could be playing against someone who doesn't turn ten for 12 more months and at age 10, a 12 month gap in age is a huge difference in physical maturity. (the best are those born in the 1st the months due to being oldest and most mature in age group)

Chinese Math

Chinese math compared to American math is much simpler. The same things are taught, however. The difference is that in Chinese, the language maths the different concepts easier to understand. For instance, fractions in chinese are literally saying "some part of something." Like two thirds would be two parts of three rather than two thirds. This makes math overall easier to grasp if you grow up speaking Chinese. This ties into cultural legacy in the same way Chinese numbers does. Math being easier since their culture speaks it makes them more successful in the subject overall.

Chinese Proverbs

Chinese proverbs in Gladwell's book was compared to Russian peasant proverbs. In them, you notice that in Russians proverbs, it says that if something bad were to happen, like a bad harvest, it was god's doing. However, if you look at Chinese peasants proverbs, they say things that infer that the harder you work, the more you'll get out of life. This concept was included because it shows the deep cultural connecting between the Chinese and working hard. It ties in with success because, since their culture is to work hard, things that you thrive in if you have the hardworking trait (like math) will be what they excel in.

culture of honor

Culture of honor is what Gladwell claimed was the cause of the Appalachian pattern. These cultures are normally found in highlands or infertile areas. The explanation provided for having the culture in rocky mountains is that one cannot farm, so they probably raise livestock, and the cultures of herdsmen is very isolated and non-cooperative. Since there is always a fear of livestock being stolen, herdsmen are aggressive, and keep up their reputation through fighting. A world that has self-worth and livelihood at the center of a man's reputation is how Gladwell defines a culture of honor. He includes this concept as the main example of why it matters where someone's ancestors are from, and how it shapes them even though they don't realize it.

Flom Lesson #2

Demographic luck: The second lesson to learn from Joe Flom is that it matters (again) when you are born. Flom was born December 21, 1923, when the birthrate in the U.S. was on a downturn. By the time he was ready to start college, enrollment was down because of the drop in birthrate, the facilities were new and ample because they were built for the previous birth peak, and there were a lot of brilliant people who could not get their desired jobs because of the Depression so wound up at teachers and professors in the colleges and universities. For someone wanting a quality education, this was the perfect time.

Donald and Daisy Nation

Donald and Daisy Nation were Gladwell's grandparents. They were school teachers in a small Jamaican town. Donald was more involved in his books than his daughters' futures; however, Daisy kept the twins in the private school even when they were broke, and talked to Mr. Chance to get Joyce a loan for her college. Gladwell explained that Daisy's ambition for her daughters was a cultural legacy. This was a legacy because her brother was a man of learning, her other brother opened a garment factory, her father was a produce wholesaler, her mother came from another educated family, her uncle owned property, and her grandfather became a preacher. This showed that cultural legacy also played a role one generation back in his family. Gladwell included this to further show that cultural legacy is all around us, all we have to do is look.

University of Michigan Law School

Even though these students were often admitted with slightly lower test scores than white students, their careers were just as successful (once you're smart enough to get into law school, you're smart enough to be successful)Gladwell included this school as an example of the threshold effect. He talked about how the universities minorities did worse in school then the majorities. Some people had been worried about affirmative action, since the minorities being let in were less qualified than others being deprived of their spot. But how in the end, even though the students of the minority did worse in school, their overall success after college was just as good as the members of the majorities success.

Friedman, Ted

Eventually becoming one of the top litigators in New York in his time, Ted Friedman started like Flom. He was also a poverty-ridden Jewish immigrant under his parents. When it came to colleges, his choices were City College or the University of Michigan. While City College was free, the University of Michigan is $425 his first year, and free the rest with scholarships. He was able to attend City College for a day; then when he decided he did not like it, Friedman transferred to the University of Michigan. Just like that. This story helps support Gladwell's theme because Friedman being part of the demographic trough made his college experience extremely easy for him. He was economically challenged, yet got into college with little to pay.

Education and Relative Age

Gladwell compared the phenomenon of Relative Age to the cutoff ages of the Canadian Hockey League to show why most successful hockey players are born in the beginning of the year. He relates this phenomenon to education as well. When it comes down to it, education is far more important to that of sports like hockey and he explains this to have a stronger claim for his definition of success. He justifies that the students born early in the year advance far more than those who are held back before the start of kindergarten because their birthday falls at the end of the year. Many people think that the younger children eventually catch up to the children originally ahead, but statistics state the contrary. The initial separation of the ages is divided into achievement and underachievement says Gladwell. This means that the older students are spiraled into being put in gifted classes where they learn in even more advanced classes the next year, leaving the other children underrepresented and looked down upon. This situation is parallel to Gladwell's overall image of success because it proves that those with more opportunities placed in their life have further success.

Ecology Metaphor

Gladwell creates a metaphor about Ecology to explain how he thinks success is made. He describes how the tallest oak tree in the forest is not the tallest because its seed just happened to be good. He continues his analogy by saying that the tree grew the tallest because no trees blocked its sunlight, it was planted in rich soil, no lumberjack cut it down and so on. That is how he believes successful people are created. His purpose with this metaphor was to show that people aren't just born with success. They may have a talent that gives them a head start, but there are many factors like the soil and sunlight in this case that truly make them succeed and reach the top. This compares to his view of success and what he wants people to know that there are advantages out of sight that boost people's levels of success.

"Accumulation of Minor Difficulties and Seemingly Trivial Malfunctions"/ Seven Consecutive Errors

Gladwell explains how planes don't just explode before they crash. No one big thing causes a plane to go down; there are smaller malfunctions that lead up to the disaster. This is described as the "Accumulation of Minor Difficulties and Seemingly Trivial Malfunctions". Gladwell uses examples like bad weather, flights behind schedule, and tired and uncomfortable(don't know each other) pilots that all eventually factor into the crashing of the plane. These small errors are also commonly referred to as the "Seven Consecutive Errors". None of the problems mentioned are abnormally bad, but accumulated together is when disaster can strike. The most problematic of those problems that lead to a crash usually aren't even related to flying. It is between the communication of the pilot and copilot. The pilots don't know how to talk to each other, and so important information isn't covered mutually. It is difficult for investigators to conclude the cause of the crash usually because of all the tiny factors that caused it. Gladwell includes this to reinforce that other factors make an impact in success(or lack of). This goes with his definition of success and legacies because he believes success or failure is determined based off of smaller events that take place and usually the major problem is lack of communication which is derived from one's culture.

Chris Langan (combine with Part I)

Gladwell introduced Chris Langan in the beginning of the third chapter as a contestant on the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He said how gifted he was and how he possessed so much intelligence, but ends the chapter by saying you have to know a lot more about him to understand if he could be or is successful. Langan's mom had four sons, all from different fathers and he was the first. His father left before he was born, but his mother's fourth husband was a guy named Jack Langan who was the "father-figure". Gladwell quotes Langan reminiscing his childhood and the state of poverty him and his family were in. They only had one set of clothes, his father would drink and prevent "his kids" from eating, and he beat them. Langan had a rough time all throughout his younger years, but when it came to graduation, he had received two full ride scholarships. He decided to go to Reed College in Oregon, but he struggled and felt out of place. Many unfortunate things happened to him. He lost his scholarship because of his mother's failure to renew it so he enrolled into Montana State University. He ended up having issues with professors so he dropped out of college. Today, Langan lives an ordinary life without being dramatically successful. Chris Langon was an important part of Gladwell's purpose because Langon is an example of why the "geniuses" aren't always the ones that succeed. Langan lacked the entitlement and parents to support him at a young age, which in reality is very influential on one's ability to succeed. This goes with Gladwell's understanding of success because Langon missed out on many chances to make an impact because he had no help and Gladwell believes that people who grow up "alone" have lesser chances of success.

Katie Brindle

Gladwell mentions an experiment executed by a sociologist, Annete Lareau. She followed 12 third graders and their families around day by day and recorded many observations on a tape recorder and in her notebook. She observed all types of races and social status to discover how kids are parented differently. She found that wealthier parents raised their kids by being highly involved in all of their child's activities, while the lower class parents were not very involved in their child's lives and as result, the children were independent. Gladwell uses one of Lareau's third graders, Katie Brindle, to prove this discovery. Katie came from a working-class family and was a part of her school's choir. Because of her family's class, she grew up self reliant. Unlike the child of a wealthy family's actions, Katie signed up HERSELF for choir and walked to practice every time. Katie didn't receive the attention that higher class children received, so she didn't have the motivation or learn the skills from others to be successful. As a result of her parents' lack of wealth, Katie has a smaller likelihood of succeeding compared to those in the upper class who have entitlement and praise from their family. Gladwell decided to mention the short story of Katie Brindle to show how poorer children have to adapt to their situation and aren't given the benefits other classes receive. This relates to his definition of success because one of his main points is how a family's level of wealth determines if children can learn the skills to succeed.

The Beatles

Gladwell uses the Beatles as an example of his definition of success. Throughout the Beatles long career, they demonstrated hard work and they even got lucky a couple times which ultimately increased their level of success. The Beatles members started playing music in highschool together seven years before they even arrived in the United States. Within those years, they put in a lot of hard work and were invited to play in Hamburg, Germany. There were many clubs in this city and one of the owners of a club, Bruno, brought rock groups to come play. Completely by chance, Bruno came across the Beatles and invited them to come play, which opened them up to other clubs too. The clubs didn't pay well, but they allowed the Beatles to play ALL the time. Clubs had them playing for 8 hours straight, seven days a week. By the time the word got out on the street of their band, they had played a total of 1200 times. All together, they practiced around 10,000 hours and practiced long enough to become great. Gladwell describes the Beatles's story to depict how many opportunities they had that made them rise to the top. If they weren't invited to Hamburg to play and practice, their name might have been unheard of.

Greenburg, David

Greenburg was from Delta Airlines. Korean Air brought him over to help address their crashing problems. Greenburg first improved everyone's English. Then, he brought in Western training.Greenburg stated that teaching the Koreans English would allow them to retreat the hierarchical barrier that they face in their country. He also helped start up Cargo 360. Gladwell included him because he showed a main thing pilots need to be successful: communication

Introduction to Bill Joy

He was a computer programmer who fell in love with software at the University of Michigan. He rewrote a software and made the majority of software for modern day computers, founded sun microsystems, and rewrote Java.He didn't just have natural talent. He was lucky and was presented with opportunities that led to him getting the 10,000 hours of practice.

Herdsmen vs. Farmers

On one hand, there are farmers. Their survival depends on the cooperation of the community. There is also not a threat of their livelihood since someone can't steal their whole field of crops in the middle of the night. On the other hand, there is herdsmen. They do not depend on anyone's cooperation, making them more isolated than farmers. Also, since animals have potential to be stolen, herdsmen are known to have aggressive reputations. Gladwell included these differences to show why there was a culture of honor in the Appalachian Mountains.

Terman, Lewis; Termites; Terman's Error

In Terman's experiment with his Termites, his theory that people with high IQ's become successful was proven incorrect. Instead, his group of geniuses lied on each end of the spectrum, from dead beat to overall success. Instead of proving his own theory, in fact, Terman provided proof for Annette Lareau's theory that what your parents do for a living and what class you're in matters. Gladwell also points out that you can divide the Termites into groups based on when they were born, tying into demographic luck. Those born before 1911 graduated from college at the height of the Great Depression, making them demographically unlucky. The Termites born after 1911, however, graduated right after the Great Depression came to an end. Gladwell presented Terman's study in the chapter as an example of demographic luck, and to make it more clear to the reader what exactly Gladwell meant when defining demographic luck.

Korean Airlines 801 (KAL) Crash

In this crash, the three people flying the plane through they saw the runway since there was lights. When they started their descent, they could see no runway. Once they realized and tried to pull up, it was too late and the plane crashed into the side of Nimitz Hill. The plane skidded for two thousand feet then fell into a ravine and became ablaze. 228 of the 254 people on board were dead when workers reached the site.

Flom, Joe

Joe Flom worked as a partner in a very successful Manhattan law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. He came from a very poor Jewish family, but was able to attend a very prestigious high school and later enter Harvard Law School. Flom was one of those classmates that everyone "hates", sitting in the classroom, never taking notes, and blowing the curve. He was named to the Law Review, and graduated in the top of his class.

Joyce Nation

Joyce Nation was Gladwell's mother. She experienced some hidden advantaged throughout her life that led to her going to a private school, then going to a university in london, then meeting her husband and becoming ultimately successful. The advantages she had were that her birthdate times her perfectly for the riots in Jamaica in 1937 that provided her the opportunity to go to a private school on a scholarship, then a child giving up their private school scholarship for her to get, and Mr. Chance loaning her the money to go to a University in London. Gladwell included his mother story to show a personal story of success that had hidden advantages. It was a strong ending to the book that restates his claim in a clear way.

KIPP Academy

KIPP Academy is a middle school that started out as an experiment in the Bronx. KIPP stands for "Knowledge is Power Program," and children who enter it enter through a lottery. Kids in the program come from mostly single parent, low income homes. From the inside, however, the school is very orderly and seems nothing like a typical bronx public school. KIPP is famous for its mathematics, having 84% of their eighth graders performing at or above their grade levels. Now the program is spreading across America due to its success. KIPP starts early in the morning, at 7:45, to dinner time, 5:00. On top of this, kids come in for 5 hours on Saturdays, and they have three less weeks of summer. There is two hours of math a day. Gladwell presented this to set up for Maritas story and to smoothly insert the summer vacation and test scores example.

Termites

Lewis Terman, a professor at the University of Stanford, was very interested in intelligence testing and wanted to compile a group of the "young geniuses" of the world as his life work. He and his fieldworkers evaluated many students across the world in order to find who were the most intelligent. He chose 1,470 students whose IQs ranged from 140 all the way up to 200. He named this group the "Termites". Overtime, he measured and analyzed every aspect of his "Termites" lifes' from when they got married to illnesses accumulated over the years, waiting for them to be the best and shine. He believed his people were THE Outliers, but he was proven wrong. Years progressed and none of his Termites became the people Terman was waiting for them to become. Gladwell makes known that most of them lived normal lives, without being famous or winning Nobel Peace Prizes. Terman failed to realize that people with a lower IQ may do as well or better than someone considered gifted because they have other factors that the more intelligent ones may lack (like creativity) that play a part in their success. In fact, two of the students Terman's fieldworkers tested became Nobel laureates, but were rejected from the Termites because their IQs were too low. Gladwell included Terman's evaluations to show that even though tons of people think the geniuses are the ones that always succeed, it isn't always true. Overall, the Termites study supports his claim by emphasizing that other qualities shine above IQ.

Borgenicht, Louis and Regina

Louis and Regina Borgenicht were Jewish immigrants in America. They moved to New York looking for a better life, but started off very poor. Louis tried almost every job out there looking for some good money to support his family (wife and 2 kids). One day, something came to him. He would sell clothes. He walked the streets of New York observing what clothes were popular and saw one girl wearing an apron, and of the days he looked at people's clothes, he never saw anyone wear one, so that is what he started to make. He and his wife started making children's aprons and they actually sold, so that became their business. They put in a lot of hard work and as a result, their business grew. Employees were hired and more materials were bought, even to the point where they started selling other garments too. Even though he was exhausted every night, his work fulfilled him and it was meaningful. This immigrant family wasn't just coincidentally successful though. Where they came from played a huge role in their success. Gladwell makes known that the Borgenicht's culture, timing, and hard work demonstrated helped their family the same way it helped Bill Gates and the Beatles. Because they were Jewish, they had a skill. Both Louis and Regina grew up in the clothing industry, and they arrived in New York at the perfect time because that was when clothing manufacturing was booming. This meant the economy was desperate for their hard work and skills. If the Borgenichts weren't Jewish immigrants with a background in garments during that exact time, they wouldn't have succeeded like they did. Gladwell includes their story to show that where someone comes from and the amount of work they put in can have a great impact on someone's success. This goes with his own definition of success because he believes that opportunities and hard work enhance chances of succeeding.

Farkas, Louise

Louise Farkas was a sociology graduate student. In 1982, she conducted a study that proves Gladwell's claim right. She visited nursing homes in New York City and Miami Beach in search of people who were Jewish children that immigrated to New York in the earlier 1900's. She created a family tree for each person she interviewed that represented parents, their children, grandchildren and for some, great-grandchildren and what their profession was. Interestingly enough, each family tree was almost identical. They were usually garment industry workers that had grandchildren that turned out to be doctors and lawyers. Farkas came to the conclusion that they didn't become professionals in spite of their origins, but the doctors and lawyers BECAME professionals because of their origins. Farkas's most exceptional family tree is of a Jewish family from Romania that immigrated to New York. This family was in the grocery business. Within the third generation, 11 of the grandchildren turned out to be physicians or lawyers. If the older generations didn't already have a skill of owning groceries when they immigrated, their grandchildren might not have turned out as successful. Gladwell included this study to show how accurate it depicted his claim that background plays a crucial role in establishing success.

Marita

Marita is a girl who attends the KIPP program. She is an only child with one parent, who she shares a room with in a small apartment in the bronx. When she was in fourth grade, she applied for the KIPP academy. When she was twelve, she begin getting up at 5:45 to go to school. When she gets home, she immediately starts her homework, working until eleven some nights. Then she goes to sleep, repeating the process the next day. This twelve year old had to give part of her identity to get what her cultural legacy doesn't give to her. Gladwell presented this as an example of what it takes to overcome these legacies, and how strong they are.

Fischer and Orasnu's Mitigated Speech

Mitigated speech is any attempt to downplay a situation. Sugarcoating is a good term for it. Fischer and Orasnu's scale for mitigated speech ranks it from 1 to 6. ! is the least mitigated response, while 6 is the most. They used this scale on pilots and found that while captains mostly used one, while the first officers overwhelmingly used six. Gladwell presents this idea to show how mistakes in the cockpit can happen.

Ms. McAllister

Ms. McAllister is one of the low-income parents of a child Lareau was observing. Gladwell incorporates a moment of Ms. McAllister at her child's parent-teacher conference written by Lareau. She notes how Ms. McAllister appeared to be very timid, which is in opposition to her usual outgoing self at home. She describes her as very quiet and not expressing her true feelings. For example, when the teacher tells her that her son hasn't been turning in his homework, she simply says, "He did it at home." In reality, she was shocked by her son's action, but she didn't want to get involved in any way, so she left it up to the teacher to do her job. This observation proves that those who are poorer aren't able to express their feelings and feel constrained. Because of this, she conforms to higher authority and doesn't go out of her way to get HER way, she just settles. In the long run, this has given her (and potentially her child if she doesn't teach him practical intelligence) a disadvantage to succeed. Gladwell provided this example of Ms. McAllister to show not only a real example of an adult that lacks practical intelligence, but an ongoing situation of a parent not teaching their child those important life skills. This goes with Gladwell's definition of success because he, like Lareau, also believes where a person comes from (social class) can greatly impact whether someone succeeds because of the skills they either possess or lack.

Mudge, Rose

Mudge Rose was a law firm that President Nixon practiced in before he became president. It wasn't very big, but was quite famous. This firm was where Alexander Bickel, a fellow Jewish immigrant in Flom's class at Harvard, went for his first interview. He even made it to the final step of the interview process, but then was turned down by the firm since they states they couldn't have someone working for them that was Jewish. This shows an example of someone being Jewish having to go to smaller firms in order to find work, thus giving more reasons to Gladwell's theme.

Chinese Numbers

Number in Chinese, unlike in English, are very short and simple. Their numbers are short words, like four is "qi." This makes it easier for them to remember things in their 2 second memory span (the average memory span of all humans). This concept is important because it shows why Chinese children are farther ahead than American children in math. It is simpler for them to learn. It fits in with cultural legacy because China's culture is to speak chinese, which in turn makes it simpler for them to learn their numbers

Individualism-Collectivism Scale (Hofstede's Dimensions)

The individualism-collectivism scale created by Hofstede is a scale to which one can identify a culture based on how much they expect people to take care of themself. Gladwell included this scale to compare to Nisbett and Cohen's argument.

IQ and Basketball Analogy

Over the years, the relationship between success and IQ has been studied by countless experts. Of course if you have a high IQ, you probably have a better chance of succeeding than someone with an IQ of 80. But once a person reaches an IQ of 120 or above, the correlation between IQ and success remains the same. This means that IQ has a threshold, and everyone can achieve the same amount of success as long as they are smart enough. Basketball is the same way. Gladwell reinforces this speculation by relating the IQ threshold to height in basketball players. He says that a player who is five foot six doesn't necessarily have a chance of playing professional basketball because they aren't tall enough. However, someone who is at least six foot does have a likelihood. Even though you typically have to be a certain height to play professionally, once you get past a certain point, it doesn't really matter. Gladwell gives an example of Michael Jordan, the best basketball player in history, who was "only" six foot six. Even so, there are taller basketball players who aren't nearly as good as him. Gladwell makes this analogy to explain that just because you may already be smart or tall, that doesn't automatically make you successful. His purpose is to get rid of the speculation that taller and smarter is better and to prove that many other components go into being successful.

Ingredients of Success

Passion, talent, and hard work are still the components of success, just most people forget there's one more: circumstance (when you were born, where you were born, who your parents were).

Power-Distance Index (Hofstede's Dimensions)

Power distance is concerned with attitudes towards authority. It measures how much a culture respects authority. This was applied to the captain - first officer situation. It started to occur to aviation that the problem depends on the countries PDI. Helmreich applies it one step further to say that the Avianca crash happened because the first officer was Colombian. This made him feel subordinate which ultimately led to the crash. Gladwell included this as an explanation to why Klotz acted the way he did.

Relative Age

Relative Age alludes to the phenomenon that children born in the early part of the year have a higher chance of becoming successful than those born later. Roger Barnsley, a Canadian psychologist, was the first to discover this phenomenon at a hockey game in southern Alberta. His wife was reading the program that described each of the players when she noticed something strange. She realized that the majority of the players were born somewhere between January and March. Barnsley began to do research to see if it was just a coincidence, but the pattern didn't change. There was in fact reason behind this crazy connection. In Canada, the cutoff date for age divided classes was January 1st, meaning a 10 year old could be practicing with someone who still has almost a year before he turns 10. Because of this, the older kid, with more maturity, would be chosen by scouts. That is where the success train begins because he will be given more opportunities to do better and better. This goes to show Gladwell's view of success even more because the hockey players who are chosen in the beginning are given loads of opportunity, determining their success. He wrote in detail about Relative Age to provide a real life example of one team's player's successes that branched out not only into the whole Canadian Hockey League, but other sports to show how success is attained.

Renee

Renee was no math natural. The concepts of slope and undefined were unknown to her. Nevertheless, Schoenfeld put her into a room and video taped her trying to figure out a problem. The problem being that on a computer program that maped slope, she was trying to create a vertical line. It took her 20 minutes to realize to get a vertical line you would have to put in any number divided by zero, which is undefined. So in her computer program that maps slope, it is impossible to get a vertical line. Gladwell included this example to show that math is a game of persistence. Renee sat there for twenty minutes trying to figure out a problem most students would quickly give up and ask their teacher about. It ties into how people who work harder than others end up more successful.

Robert Oppenheimer

The leading physicist on the atomic bomb project (part of the Manhattan Project). Oppenheimer earned his PhD and his highly prestigious job in spite of his communist affiliations and (even more strikingly) having once been accused of trying to poison his professor. Gladwell points out that Oppenheimer knew how to navigate the world and make success for himself in a way that Chris Langan did not.

Rice Paddies

Rice paddies are grown along the Eastern border of Asia in areas such as Southern China, Japan, and Korea. The practice of growing rice paddies differs from growing a field of wheat or corn in that a rice field is much smaller, and a lot more tedious. When growing rice paddies, the farmer get out the effort they put in. If they weed a bit more carefully or build their paddies a bit more precisely, the crop will end up better. Because of this, the Eastern border of Asia has a high work ethic, unlike the Eastern peasants who grew wheat. Gladwell included this connection to explain why exactly asians are known to have such a good work ethic. This ties in with cultural legacy since Asians cultural work ethic can apply to things like math, which makes them extremely successful

Individual Merit

So a person's individual merit is their own worth without anyone else helping them or influencing them.

Matthew Effect

Sociologist Robert Merton created the phenomenon "The Matthew Effect". He got his inspiration from a verse in the Gospel of Matthew that, in short, basically means that those who are rich get richer and those who are smart just get smarter and so on. Gladwell related this phenomenon to an ongoing situation in the Canadian hockey league. In the junior league, children have the opportunity to get a head start if they have an early birthday and because of that, they have the chance of more opportunities than others. Gladwell further explains this by saying that one opportunity can lead to an even bigger one and all of a sudden, the hockey player is very successful and becomes an outlier. He presented this topic to demonstrate that you can't be successful just for being good at something. He believes there are more parts to it and that is what he wants to share with his readers in his book.

Flom Lesson #3

The Garment Industry and Meaningful work: The third and final lesson we learn from Joe Flom, is that it matters what your parents did. Flom and many of his contemporaries were children of immigrants. Flom's father sewed shoulder pads into women's dresses. The garment industry, unlike that of tenant farming or some of the other manual trades, enabled those working in that industry to partake in "meaningful work" where they could learn all aspects of entrepreneurship (sales, market research, distribution, etc.). This type of work stimulates the mind and encourages the soul, and provides the ability to take charge of one's own destiny. In this type of work there is a strong correlation between hard work and success. These things coupled together make the work "meaningful", and growing up in this environment is a benefit to the children who see the importance of meaningful work.

Howards vs. Turners

The Howards and Turners were the founding families of Harlan County. They had a feud that started when the founder Turner's grandson killed a cow of the Howard family. Another night, the founder's grandsons (not the one who killed the cow) played poker. When they accused the other of cheating, it ended in Bob Turner laying dead. The Turners then insulted Mrs. Howard, which landed Will Turner dead. That night, the Turners attacked the Howards, but Will Turner ended up being killed. After being offered a truce, and declining it, things got even bloodier and the whole county was in chaos. Gladwell included this story as a basis of culture of honor and the whole chapter.

Raven's Progressive Matrices

The Raven's Progressive Matrices test is the most common intelligence test in the world, considering no specific language or knowledge is needed to take it. It consists of 48 items where you have to choose which pattern should be selected next, each question getting harder and harder. Gladwell opposes this type of test because it measures your ability to succeed based on your IQ. He gives examples of IQs researchers say people need in order to get into college, make a certain amount of money, and even to live longer. Just like the traditional IQ test, the Raven's Progressive Matrices test also poorly represents how success is attained, because it solely bases itself off of intelligence instead of the other qualities that can lead to success. Gladwell includes this test to show what society's stance is on successfulness, so he can inform his readers how true success is fulfilled.

Scotch-Irish

The Scotch Irish are people from the lowlands of Scotland, northern counties of England, and Ulster in Northern Ireland. Gladwell claims that the original inhabitants of the Appalachians were Scotch-Irish. The Scotch-Irish area in itself was a lawless and remote territory that was constantly in violence. The area was full of herdsmen who formed tight bloodline clans. When they immigrated, they went to remote areas so they could thrive, which happened to be the colony border states along the Appalachian Mountains. Gladwell included this to show that the settlers ancestors ended up shaping their society, even if they did not realize it.

TIMSS Questionaire

The TIMSS questionnaire was discussed earlier in Gladwell's book. In this case, however, Gladwell spoke of an educational researcher named Erling Boe. The TIMSS questionnaire is a quite tecidos test to take. It is 120 question, and most kids leave up to 20 questions blank since there is so many. Boe noticed that there was a correlation between how many each kid left blank, and their math scores. Actually, Boe found that they were the exact same. The less a kid left unanswered, showing that they were more patient to talk the time to answer them all, did better on the math section. He explained that this happened because the children who did that showed the level of focus and patience needed to excel in mathematics. Gladwell was not surprised that the children who did the best in mathon this questionnaire were from Western countries, since they were grown up on a work ethic philosophy. Gladwell presented this evidence to show that the work ethic of Asians directly correlates to their excellence at math. This also ties into cultural legacy the same way rice paddies does, their hard work ethic culture gives them advantages in things like math, making them have a hidden advantage to becoming successful.

Practice (pg.42)

The act of practice is one of the ultimate contributors of success. Psychologist K. Anders Ericcson and some of his colleagues constructed many studies to determine how the amount of practice a person conducts corresponds with how successful they are. Ericsson was able to figure out that it takes the brain 10,000 hours to acquire all the information and knowledge to achieve complete mastery of something.10,000 hours is a lot, like an enormous amount. The time that someone would have to put in to reach that amount of practice takes a lot of hard work, and hard work doesn't just come from anywhere. This is why Gladwell included this because not everyone has the privilege to put in the hard work. You need resources and encouraging figures in your life to reach 10,000 hours. You can't be poor either because you most likely won't have time to work that hard and support yourself with a job. Another connection is yet made that opportunities are needed for someone to succeed, in this case the opportunities are time, privilege, and resources.

Summer Vacation and Test Scores

The correlation between summer vacation and test scores shows many things. For one, it shows that low income and high income students learn at the exact same pace as each other when school is in session. The next thing is shows us, however, is that during summer, higher income students continue to learn while lower income students do not. This shows where the differences lie between high and low income households and why low income households seem to be doing worse in school as opposed to higher income households. The main point being shown with this study is that the problem with American education isn't fundamental, it's just that we don't have enough of it. Gladwell included this to explain what the KIPP program was trying to do, and to show the reader why American schools are not long enough.

Flom Lesson #1

The importance of being Jewish: Because of the money involved, the "big" law firms now wanted to get in the game, but the Jewish lawyers were the ones with the most experience and the best in the business, so they got the business and the money to go along with it.

Roseto Mystery

The neighboring communities of the town in Roseto, Pennsylvania were intrigued to hear that the people of Roseto had a low rate of heart disease while other communities were challenged by the recurring issue of dying younger due to heart disease which the physician Steward Wolf found. Doctors tested this finding and could find no reasonable proof which developed it to be known as the ¨Roseto Mystery.¨ The idea that Gladwell is establishing in his introduction is that these people came from Italy and had advantages that other people in Pennsylvania and this leaves the reader asking questions about why that might be. The author will then go on to explain how people have opportunities in life and advantages which helps cause this so the introductions helps evoke thought and curiosity out of the reader.

IQ Threshold

The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn't seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage

Appalachian Pattern

The term Appalachian Pattern is was Gladwell uses when referring to the series of clashes up and down the Appalachian between different family blood lines. The feud's turned into pattern, which Gladwell explains is caused by culture of honor. Gladwell includes this concept to lead into the concept of culture of honor, and to provide examples of some.

Practical Intelligence

There are 2 types of intelligence--practical and analytical. Geniuses are the ones who possess great amounts of analytical intelligence. This involves reasoning, evaluating, analyzing, and problem-solving. It is somewhat genetic and an innate trait. Practical intelligence is the opposite though. This kind of intelligence refers to what some people call "street smart". Knowing what to say to a person, when to say it, and how to say it are all examples of this. People who have practical intelligence know how to get what they want which can really boost their chances of success. Analytical and practical intelligence don't go hand in hand, meaning just because you possess one, doesn't mean you will have the other. Gladwell mentions the term "practical intelligence" to further dive into where a person gets it. He comes to the conclusion that "social savvy" isn't something you are born with; it is learned. Further, he says that families are the ones who teach their children these skills. Gladwell uses the phrase "practical intelligence" to further show his readers that IQ isn't the only factor of success. Practical intelligence can actually get people farther than those with more analytical intelligence sometimes because those people know how to get their way. A genius may not contain any social skills, so as a result, he may never get his name out into the world or grab anyone's attention. This heavily correlates with Gladwell's idea of success because it reveals that success is demonstrated in additional ways other than intelligence alone.

Brick and Blanket Divergence Tests

There are theories that once people reach a certain IQ, that their level of intelligence is basically the same, and there are other factors that make them successful. Because of this, there are more tests that measure other types of things about a person. One type of these tests is a Divergence test. The IQ test asks a question and you pick the right answer, but a Divergence test gives you objects that you have to describe as many uses for. These tests contradict each other because the IQ test measures intelligence while the Divergence test measures creativity and how far you can use your imagination. Gladwell uses the Brick and Blanket example to show how the test works and how intelligence alone doesn't guarantee success. He gives some answers of how one person responded to the test-- with very creative and unique responses. Then, he gives examples of how another person (with a higher IQ) responds. His answers were not creative at all and were the most common uses. Gladwell's purpose to include this observation was to show that someone's IQ doesn't determine their success; There are other factors than just someone's intelligence. This correlates with Gladwell's overall claim of success by explaining that the "geniuses" that are the ones stereotyped to succeed aren't always the ones that do. There are other contributions like a person's creativity that may make a person have more recognition than their IQ.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz

These names are of the people who make up the Black Rock law firm. Their first partner was Herbert Wachtell, whose parents were Jewish immigrants. As were the other member's parents. All of them went to a lower city college, but then to a higher level college like Harvard. This develops Gladwell's theme by showing the trend with successful lawyers of this time period. The trend being that having Jewish immigrant parents provides a hidden advantage to individual becoming successful.

Transmitter vs. Receiver Orientations

This concept is referring to how the First Officer transmits situations to ground control, and how they perceive it. For instance, when the first officer of Aviana said "uh, we're running out of fuel," the ground control did not take him seriously. Gladwell included this to complete the understanding of why mitigated speech was so destructive

Cohen and Nisbett Experiment

This experiment was to test culture of honor. In it, their was a control group who just took a survey and walked through a hall and turned it in. In the actual group, however, as they walked through the hall, a man would step out and make getting through into more of a squeeze. The man in the hall then would turn around and swear at the one trying to squeeze through. After analyzing the differences between the groups, what stood out was that anyone from the South god really mad when sweared at; in contrast, Northerns laughed it off and were passive. Gladwell included this experiment to provide evidence that where you come from matters.

Cutoff Age

Those born closer to the cut-off date will be more likely to be chosen for travelling squad.

Lucky Breaks and the 75 Richest People in Human History

Towards the end of the second chapter, Gladwell gives one more example of the opportunities outliers are gifted with. He provides a chart of the seventy five richest people in history. He gives the name, net worth, origin, and company owned of each person. He points out that out of the 75 names, 14 are Americans born in the mid-nineteenth century (20% of names come from a single generation in 1 country). All of those Americans were alive during one of the greatest economic transformations in American history, meaning their success relied on their birth date. If those rich people were born before the 1850's, they would've missed out on their success. The connection of birth dates to success compares to time contributing to success, which overall demonstrates Gladwell's belief that opportunity is a major factor in the act of succeeding.

White-Shoe Law Firms

White-shoe law firms were defined by Gladwell as partnerships between law firms based on mutual lifestyles. Everyone in these law firms did the same things; attended the same churches and went to the same ivy leagues and stayed at the same summer vacations and wore grey suits. This White Shoe Law Firms were very particular about who they hired to work for them. Gladwell included this partnership to show everything Bickel was not. The perfect picture these law firms were looking for something Bickel could never live up to.

Meritocracy

a system in which promotion is based on individual ability or achievement

Accomplishment of Natural Growth

working class and poor parents have no choice but to care for their children but presume that they will spontaneously grow and thrive