Given A Chance

In our culture people rise to the top because they get a lot of luck: they're born in the right year or even the right month, maybe they are lucky to have middle class parents or be born into a rice eating Asian culture. According to Malcolm Gladwell and the thesis he outlines in his latest book, Outliers, don’t blame your lack of success on the fact you weren’t trying, blame it on the fact you have no luck.

Of course he says seizing your chance when it comes your way and working your ass off to maximize the potential is the second half of the equation.

Gladwell’s book is stuffed full of colourful examples, for instance it is no accident most hockey players are born in the first 4 months of the year. They are bigger and stronger than their later born adversaries so when the hockey talent, recruiting scouts come round they get chosen; he argues if the scouts came around twice a year Canada would have twice as many good hockey players than it does now. Asian kids are better at math then their western counterparts. According to Gladwell it is not because of some innate genetic ability it is because Asian numbers are easier to understand, the kids catch on quicker and are solving complex algebraic equations before they are out of diapers well not quite but you get my drift.

In short, having a high IQ is only part of the reason why some people rise to the top like cream and others don’t. Lots of Luck and hard work matter more. It seems we are less in control of our destiny than we think.

I find Malcolm's thesis depressing. The old nurture theory, that we can make a difference in our destiny solely by changing our behavior seems not too be true.