The "More" Child

Recently I blogged about an article Malcolm Gladwell wrote for the New Yorker, entitled “Late Bloomers: Why Do We Equate Genius with Precocity?” Little did I realize it was a prelude to the release of his latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success. (Silly me, I guess I need to get a bit more switched on to the ins and outs of the publishing industry.)

In Outliers, Gladwell poses a basic question: Why do some people succeed far more than others?

Here’s what the book jacket has to say:

There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story that focuses on intelligence and ambition. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking around them—at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birthdate.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find this stuff fascinating. And it’s not just a function of being a parent to a kid that’s been blessed with large amounts of smarts. Over the years I’ve asked people, “What do you think is THE place to be right now?“ (Think Prague and Budapest just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Think Paris in the 1920s, and 1950s. San Francisco in the 1960s.) On the day after the election I commented to my college-age interns how lucky they are to be the age they are at the cusp of the Obama presidency. Timing matters. In this blog I’ve shared my thoughts on being lumped in with the Boomers, and of having the ill luck to graduate into two recessions. Location matters too. Back in my undergrad days, I was an international relations major when few schools offered programs in that field. My first year of college found me at my safety school in Worcester, MA. Not exactly a hotbed of internationalism. Which is why I transferred to a school in DC.

But back to Gladwell. He takes the kernels of things I’ve mused about, turns up interesting examples and synthesizes them in a fresh “who knew?” way that is 100 times better.

• He gives the definitive answer to every mother who has agonized if she should “red shirt” her late birthday her child. Gladwell looks at athletes across the spectrum and says “yes.” Made me think it would be interesting to do an analysis of birthdates of kids who are in the MCPS magnet programs. And how lower income families are less likely to red shirt because they need the childcare that school provides.
• He talks about the 10,000 hour rule, which states that raw talent is not enough. To achieve excellence, a person has to put in 10,000 hours, or about 10 year of intensive, diligent practice. Which immediately made me wonder, what are my kids doing toward this magic number? (Or myself, for that matter!) Thing is, one can often only see that something was preparation in hindsight. (Is all that knitting laying the groundwork for a fabulous career as a couture knitwear designer?)
• He gives the heartbreaking case of Chris Langen, a brilliant man whose life circumstances have shaped him in such away that he’s never achieved the success one might imagine for someone with his gifts. It made me think a lot about the immigrant kids in my community and what forces are shaping them.
• He also looks at the case of top New York lawyers–and how not only being Jewish, but being Jewish and born in a demographic trough (the 1930s) with parents who were garment workers made all the difference. I found this chapter fascinating as it parallels the story of my husband’s grandfather. He came to this country at the age of 4, spent years in an orphanage because his mother couldn’t afford to support him. He sold newspapers on Maxwell Street in Chicago, came under the patronage of a politically powerful lawyer, went from high school straight to law school (you could do that in those days, I guess), made a lot of money during the Depression and retired a state supreme court judge.

Critics are saying the book is short on research and citation…true. But I forgive him. I’m halfway through the book already (it’s a short and fast read) and I have to say it’s fun and thought-provoking.

[Listen to an interview of Gladwell on NPR here. Page includes excerpt and listener comments.]