The Outsider

Outliers: The Story of Success

This book takes us into the world of successful people and unexpectedly uncovers a series of astonishing statistics: most Premier League players are born between September and November; Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were both born in 1955; many founders of famous New York law firms are descendants of Jewish immigrants, and most of their ancestors made a living in the New York garment industry.
Why does this happen? The reason is: Premier League players register in September each year. Among players of the same age, those born in September are almost a year older than those born in August, and a year's difference has a huge impact on their careers; around 1955 was the period of the computer revolution. If born too early, one couldn't own a personal computer, and if born too late, the opportunity of the computer revolution would have been taken by others... Therefore, those prodigies and eccentrics must thank the眷顾 of opportunity.
In addition, their success also requires cultural熏陶 from previous generations and is closely related to cultural heritage: the Chinese advantage in mathematics benefits from the industrious spirit of Chinese rice farming and the conciseness of Chinese character pronunciation; the high airplane crash rate in South Korea in the early 1990s was also caused by the overly strict hierarchy between superiors and subordinates in Korea.
Maverick Malcolm Gladwell tells us that without opportunity, culture, and environmental factors, even someone with an IQ higher than Einstein can only do a mediocre job. "Outliers" leads us to the roots of success, discovers deeper opportunities for success, and brings new revelations for social change.

2020-08-01

中信出版社

328

9787521719055