Brain Rules (John Medina, 2008) 8.0/10
How We Decide (Jonah Lehrer, 2009) 8.2/10
How The Mighty Fall (Jim Collins, 2009) 6.7/10
World Wide Rave (David Meerman Scott, 2009) 7.2/10
The Element (Sir Ken Robinson, 2009) 8.2/10
Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way (David Magee, 2009) 5.0/10
The Talent Code (Daniel Coyle, 2009) 6.5/10
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert B. Cialdini, 2007) 7.0/10
The Ten Commandments for Business Failure (Donald R. Keough, 2008) 7.3/10
The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets (Peter D. Schiff, 2008) 5.2/10
The Brand Bubble (John Gerzema and Ed Lebar, 2008) 6.0/10
A Sense Of Urgency (John P. Kotter, 2008) 6.5/10
Who (Geoff Smart and Randy Street, 2008) 6.8/10
Reality Check (Guy Kawasaki, 2008) 7.2/10
Tribes (Seth Godin, 2008) 4.7/10
Talent (Edward E. Lawler III, 2008) 5.8/10
Business Stripped Bare (Richard Branson, 2008) 7.8/10
Call Me Ted (Ted Turner with Bill Burke, 2008)
Winning (Jack Welch with Suzy Welch, 2005) 8.0/10
Tuned In (Craig Stull, Phil Myers & David Meerman Scott, 2008) 7.2/10
Inside Steve's Brain (Leander Kahney, 2008) 6.0/10
Yes! (Robert Cialdini, et al, 2008) 6.7/10
The Answer (John Assaraf & Murray Smith, 2008) 7.2/10
Six Disciplines Execution Revolution (Gary Harpst, 2008) 4.0/10
The Future of Management (Gary Hamel and Bill Breen, 2008) 7.3/10
Meatball Sundae (Seth Godin, 2007) 7.0/10
“People don’t rise from nothing.”
“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell is a book telling us the stories of success. The examples of outliers range from geniuses (someone IQ over 190!), business tycoons (Bill Gates among others), rock stars (the Beatles), and software programmers (Bill Joy and… well, Bill Gates). The book tries to uncover “the secrets of a remarkable lawyer, look at what separates the very best pilots from pilots who have crashed planes, and try to figure out why Asians are so good at math.”
“Outliers” is separated into two parts. One is “Opportunity” and the other is “Legacy”. Malcolm Gladwell portrays the stories of success through the two main themes, opportunity and legacy. That those successful people do not rise from nothing. Sometimes, once-in-a-life-time and unintentional opportunity took someone from a no one to be a total outlier.
…
It is not truly fair to compare the book to the ideal business book (a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience) because this is no typical business or self-improvement book. However, I’ll rate it honestly.
Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The beauty of the book is how Malcolm Gladwell made the book become like a series of short stories. Every chapter is focused but you will find occasional twists throughout the book. You might not be familiar with lives of Jewish immigrants or Asian rice fields but Gladwell could elaborate them thoroughly.
Distinction: 9/10: There are books which are on many issues of this book. There are books on IQ. There are books on Bill Gates and Silicon Valley. There are books on culture, randomness, talent, honour, you name it. However, this book is on another level by the approach the author used to look at those successes. Malcolm Gladwell connects those things and look through to another layer, opportunity and legacy. All the stories have been told but I believe that this is the first time they are tied and thread together.
Practicality: 2/10: This book is not a self-help book. Do not expect to take anything from the book and make use of it. You cannot really create opportunity and legacy; they are mostly external. However, if you are reading this book at the age of ten to twelve, you might still have time (one point for this). Or if you are going to have or have a child, the book might be slightly helpful (another point for this).
Credibility: 2/10: As intriguing as it might seem to be, do not take it too seriously. The theories of this book lack exceptions (which were present, apparently). The sample size is one or only a few which are not statistically reliable to construct a theory out of each successful story.
Insight: 7/10: Although the number of cases representing each “theory” is too small, the author could elaborate each example in details and all of them are explained with lots of fascinating facts. The researches are quite deep into each topic and many of them are from the nineteenth century which are fascinating.
Reading Experience: 8/10: This is one of the most fictional non-fiction books! Malcolm Gladwell is a genius in writing, to be specific, in storytelling. He made some boring and usual stuffs (like Asian’s math skill, public school, or Bill Gates!) interesting and made your brain tick all the time. You will feel like you are reading a book from a fiction section rather than what you normally find in Business & Investing section in Amazon.com.
Overall: 6/10: If you read the title “Outliers: The Story of Success” and focus on the word “success” and hope that you can become successful as well, I give you a warning, you will not like it. However, if you concern more on the “story”, this is definitely a book for you. Don’t get me wrong, the stories are remarkable and I do not regret reading the book at all. There are some wonderful knowledge that I will not forget. I enjoy every minute reading the book. Nevertheless, I am clueless on how to become one of them.
May 31st, 2009 at 8:35 am
[...] Stripped Bare (Richard Branson, 2008) 7.8/10 Call Me Ted (Ted Turner with Bill Burke, 2008) Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell, 2008) 6.0/10 Winning (Jack Welch with Suzy Welch, 2005) 8.0/10 Tuned In (Craig Stull, Phil Myers & David [...]