Your Are Lucky to be so Lucky, But There Is Something Else You Must Do...

Intro

This is not my creation.

It's the stimulus of getting into engaging and creative conversations led by Rob McPhillips together with Neil Harrison and Saurabh Debnath !

As we agreed to talk about our impressions around the book "Outliers", by Malcom Gladwell, I thought I could never do that... before I wrote my summary of that book. So, dear reader, here you have it.

Funny Story First

I don't listen to audio books - this book being one out of two exceptions, as I got it as a gift. That means I don't have the book to take a nice pic and put it as the banner - thus, AI. But it doesn't stop there.

Since it is an audio book, it was a little harder for me to glance over it and remember some core concepts and the general flow - it works best for the to read. Then, again I used AI, to merge a series of audio files and then generate the transcription of those so I could read it.

The outcomes? Many issues to generate he image and the text, and a lot of back and forth until I figured adjustments I had to do before tech would work.

No, folks, we will still not lose our jobs for the machines for quite some time... but hey, I did what I wanted in half the time! And that's the benefit of AI.

And now it's time to get back to the book.

Many Stories Next

If you ever read Malcom Gladwell, you know he sell books because he is absolutely great at telling stories. He knows many, he researches a lot, and he tells them in a way the flows smooth, later connecting the stories one with another as if he was a spider and his book, his net. It will grab your attention!

I won't therefore re-tell those stories here, that's the value of actually reading the book. But I will tell you the two core concepts I have found in the book that may be transformative. Or not.

Ever Heard About the 10,000 Hours?

If you have been using the Internet for long enough, or have been working in Corporate, chances are that 100% of you already heard this once: practice any skill for 10,000 to achieve mastery and transform your life.

Well, this is the book that popularized it!

In fact, by the age of 20, the elite performers had totaled 10,000 hours of practice over the course of their lives.         

The emerging picture from such studies is that 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class.         

This is also where one of my favorite quotes come from:

Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.

First, let me tell you why it doesn't make sense and why it doesn't work. Next I will tell you why it does.

The research, when studied enough, never really tried to force that conclusion. It was just showing that significantly superior efforts usually led to better results, and there are a few stories in the book supporting that, from musicians to programmers.

But the research didn't compare apples to apples, i.e. two individuals who invested the same 10,000 hours and then compared their results, and it wasn't nearly as broad enough and large enough to be statistically significant.

It failed to analyze a few hundreds of parameters, from biomarkers to socio-economical conditions, and because it is supported by examples it doesn't confirm it to be true (confirmation bias, anyone?).

So, it does NOT make sense. But, it does... and here is why...

Because it reminds us that significantly investing more than others do and working with time on our side compounds results in ways that may be truly extraordinary. Maybe you are truly gifted... and those 10,000 hours will bring you to genius level. Or you are not... but since you have found something not many others are investing this kind of time into, it will set you apart because of the experiences you gathered and how you can mechanically improve your results just by allowing your brain to leverage all that while working.

10,000 is practice, says the author, of about 10 years. Most people, says the Internet, don't have the patience to watch a 30 seconds video. Draw your conclusions...

What makes that rule even more important though is the other concept Malcom brings up:

You Are Just Lucky (if you are successful, that is)

Through stories and stories of famous and successful people, Malcom proves once and again what we all know: it's all about being on the right place at the right time.

For me the most compelling story is the birth rate gap in the USA on the 30s and how that generated opportunities for many to become millionaires, more than in any other decade, just because... well... there were less people competing at the times those people were competing at their peaks!

Or how Bill Gates became Bill Gates because he is certainly a genius... and also someone who happened to be living in a country where computers were way more accessible than most others, his family having more access to it than most families within the same country.

He reminds us, without downplaying the value of those individuals, that there were circumstances playing in their favor, and that downplaying that is a disservice to society.

For many of us, parents, he tells many stories about the difference it makes to be just a few months older when you are a kid going through selection processes for either sports or studies, which should remind us to take perspective and re-think our parenting strategies to adjust to our kids, and not to what norms are pushing for "kids around that age".

What's a Good Summary of It for Us?

Put one insight with the other, and I read it out loud: work to create the context, for you and your loved ones, that enabled you and them to become outliers, as long as you are also willing to put the effort into it.

Or, says Malcom:

We do owe something to parentage and patronage.

Is there anything else to be taken into consideration, maybe? Yes, there is. A third concept, which is not so prominent in the book but was discussed by Nassim Taleb on his books (have a look on my summary of the Black Swan):

The particular skill that allows you to talk your way out of a murder wrap or convince your professor to move you from the morning to the afternoon section, is what the psychologist Robert Sternberg calls practical intelligence.	        

If you put chance together with effort, and then "street smart" skills, you can truly become unbeatable. Or, again back to Malcom:

The successful are those who have been given opportunities and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.

Observations

I absolutely love this book. I'm sure you would, too, because:

• Easy of reading: 5 stars. It flows so well from one chapter into the next and the Malcom made it extra accessible to everyone explaining well the concepts he is using through the book.
• Learning something new: 3 stars. I feel the author jumps too quickly into conclusions and makes many bold statements that can be misleading. There is a lot to learn, but if you read, think about what you are learning...
• Interesting and Engaging: 4 stars. The stories are incredible. I could read those again and again and again.

Recommendation done, let me ask you: who is your favorite outlier?