Chances are one in a million

Review by Mike Gange

Outliers: The story of success
By Malcolm Gladwell
Little, Brown & Co., $27.99 US, $30.99 CDN, 309 pages

Let me tell ya, Malcolm Gladwell can write. As he describes the growth of a Pennsylvania town, Roseto, you can almost smell the gardens growing in the back yards of the stuccoed houses. You can almost see the old grandmothers – dressed in the traditional black garb of the widowed – making their way to neighbourhood shops in their daily routine, buying the fixin’s to feed their extended families, and then heading home to make their colourful and splendid dishes.  

Malcolm Gladwell is a pretty good observer. He makes a valid and interesting point that most of the hockey players who make it to the big leagues are born in the first three months of a calendar year. This isn’t really surprising, since January first is the cut off date for hockey registration.  Those kids born, then, in the first week of January have a whole year to develop in size and skills before they get to play their first games of organized hockey. Of course they are going to be bigger, faster and more skilled than their teammates who were born, say, in December. Of course they are going to get noticed by the coaches selecting an all star team. They are, after all, nearly a year older and more developed.

But one thing Malcolm Gladwell does not do very well is dig deep enough to get beyond a shallow understanding of an issue. One of his speculations goes like this: Chinese people are culturally attuned to long, hard hours. This is exemplified by the farmers, whose daily, backbreaking labour in the rice paddies extends through both the growing season and the dry season. It is just natural then that kids of such an industrious people will do well in math – they are used to working at the subject the way their parents are dedicated to working in their rice paddies. See what I mean? Doesn’t quite work. Here’s more: Asian kids are used to going to school for more hours each day, and for a longer school year – typically 220 days, versus the North American average of 190 – so they make better students.  And if we then extend the school year for all kids, they will similarly make remarkable progress in reading and math, without any fall-off of their skills in the months when they are not in class.  Just look at those who are economically privileged, writes Gladwell. Throughout the summer, those kids get to see museums and events that stimulate their imagination, and this boosts their reading skills, while those from an economically challenged background return to school in September without such stimulations, only to score lower on achievement tests.

I guess Gladwell hasn’t seen the research that says the education level of the mother will directly influence the education level of the kids. I guess Gladwell hasn’t seen the research that says parental involvement in a child’s education will lead to more academic successes for the student.    

Yes, Malcolm Gladwell can write.  And he is a keen observer. But he doesn’t dig deep enough into situations to truly explain how success happens. If you read Outliers: The story of success before you read Gladwell’s other books, such as The Tipping Point or Blink! you might be inclined to not read them. The shame of all of that is this isn’t his finest work. 

So Malcolm Gladwell, here’s a hint to successes in hockey and in schools. Yes, success is often size, speed, determination, tenacity and ten thousand hours of practice – all the things you said. But it is also coaching. In every single case, unless you get good teaching somewhere along the way, you won’t be a success in spite of yourself.  You will, of course, just be another one among a million.

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.  He regularly reviews books on media and popular culture.