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Outliers

By: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
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Publisher's Summary

From the best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia, learn what sets high achievers apart - from Bill Gates to the Beatles - in this seminal work from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

©2008 Malcom Gladwell (P)2008 Hachette Audio

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Where are the female outliers?

The absence of women in this book provides evidence for an unspoken point that women have not been afforded the circumstances to prevail as outliers. Rather than leave this unaddressed and simply provide a playbook of male leaders, surely a chapter noting why women are absent from the book, is warranted?

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58 people found this helpful

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Some good stuff with some terrible stuff

I really enjoyed how the author explored the cultural / luck aspects of success, breaking down idea that success is all about individual talent and hard work. However, the author has somehow managed to write an entire book about privilege, whilst missing the entire conversation about privilege.

Almost all of the stories are about men, and almost every single academic he references is a man. He is over 75% of the way through the book before he discusses a women, and the two women he does discuss (one of whom is his mother) aren't famous and didn't achieve anything particularly noteworthy. Compared with his discussions of men which included likes of Bill Gates, this is frankly appalling (Oprah Winfrey springs to mind as an obvious "outlier" he could have discussed).

He completely misses any discussion of the "structural advantage" of gender, despite a significant portion of the book being dedicated to "structural advantage". He only discusses race at the very end in the context of Jamaica, so misses the profound structural advantages of being white in America and other Western countries. He also never discusses the advantages of being straight, or non-disabled, or any other form of privilege.

I expect better from a book written in 2008.

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The story of successful men

There is notable absence of celebrating or researching successful women. How sad. This book ended up being quite painful to get through in the end. The concept began interesting enough, and then just fell flat every time there was a failure to mention another obvious contributing factor to success was gender.

I nearly laughed (or maybe rolled my eyes) in the chapter about garment making and the successful men that had their wives do all the work actually making the garments. Reading between the lines, I'm more than positive the thrifty, smart wife would have said 'I'm not paying $x for that, I'll make it on my own", but yes, give the credit to the patriarchal figure, I'm sure it was the only option back then (digital eyeroll).

Painful gender filtered writing, would not recommend.

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A fascinating analysis of success

Another great MG read / listen. Probably my favourite so far and a much more in depth analysis in comparison to his others. You're bound to learn something about why some have succeeded and others have not. Fascinating and engaging and well worth the listen.

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great book highly recommended !!!!

Very insightful and shows new ways to look at factors that underpin success... probably good things to consider by parents when signing up kids in extra curricular activities

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Outlier opportunities

Interesting and thought provoking. Though considerably out of date, Gladwell's premise still rings true. I think to the influence of familiar attitudes and advice, local and world events and timing. Timing is close to being everything. Covid 19 disruption in 2020 will well be one of these times for the stars to align for the next wave of outliers.

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Fascinating & intellectual

Malcolm has created a fantastic and interesting book. It is well written, full of excellent examples and shines light on success in a way I would have never imagined!

Malcolm is also an excellent narrator.

I highly recommend this book.

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Such an entertaining book

I really enjoyed this even though it was short. I loved the aviation chapter and the last chapter at the very with a personal touch was great. I listened to every word and the narration was on point. I'd listen to this again for sure.

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Perspective

I've always been a believer that you make your own luck. With hard work and with practice patience and persistence. This book has made me realise there are so many other factors to opportunities that arise in ones life. I definitely have a new perspective. Great book!

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Great

I've always struggled to finish books as I get bored easily. I loved it and found it easy to get through as well as being very insightful and interesting.

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