Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

In Outliers, Gladwell describes the “10,000” hour rule, stating that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. Jeanette Walls becomes successful largely through her writing. First, she worked on her high school’s newspaper for 5 years, first as editor and eventually as the main reporter and editor-in-chief. This provided her with the basis of her many hours of practice. When she moves to New York, she gets to do an internship at a small news outpost during her senior year of high school. After graduating, she lands a job there. She spends countless hours writing to add to her preexisting experience with her high school newspaper. By the time she reaches college, she has been writing for thousands of hours, gaining the priceless experience that Gladwell would say helped her towards her success.

The secret to success is arguably one of the most sought-after pieces of advice worldwide. According to Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers, the “10,000 hour rule” is a technique that has been practiced by many professionals in their respective areas. However, some authors, such as Jared Sandman and David Bradley, disagree with the notion that 10,000 hours of practice will make you a professional. Both authors present valid points in their respective arguments, yet Sandman’s argument comes across as clearer, more decisive, more down to earth, and therefore more effective. Sandman has credibility as a published author, he is constant with his

To begin, Gladwell provides solid evidence to prove that the more a person practices, the better they become at that activity. He provides readers with a study of violinists conducted by scientists. This experiment shows that the more the student practices the better they become. The student who practiced the most became an expert. Comparatively, the study showed the number of hours in which a student practices and how that number indicates a certain level of mastery. The key number in the study was ten thousand hours. Practice is directly related to how great a person becomes at something. Gladwell, explains these things in detail and with specific evidence to back it up. To add on, Gladwell states, "And what's more, the people at the top don't work harder, they work much, much harder"(Gladwell,11). This quote tells readers that to become great at something one must work at it, therefore proving that people have their own control over their fate. The author uses Motzart as another example in the story. He explains that Motzart worked hard since he was a child. He did not become great until the later years, indicating he practiced and practiced until he achieved greatness. Altogether, the more effort a person puts in determines how successful they are. Malcolm Gladwell conveys to his readers that humans have control over their own destiny due to

Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers, talks about the different ways to obtain success and what to attribute it to. In his 10,000 hour rule chapter he argues that a person must but in at least 10,000 hours of work with their interest in order to be successful. In the chapter, Marita’s Bargain he argues that there has to be opportunities and one has to work hard to take advantage of them. Gladwell uses the example of Bill Gates to exemplify his 10,000 hour rule. Gladwell uses the example of a girl in a rigorous charter school

Some of you may have heard of the four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles. She blew us all way at the 2016 Rio Olympics, performing breathtaking skills no one has ever done before-one of them even named after her. She has dedicated her whole life for these very Games. As of today, she is the best gymnast to ever live. Simone obviously has a large amount of raw talent. However, her triumphs are because of much more than that; over the course of her life, she has practiced at least, if not more, than 10,000 hours. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell proposes the idea that an individual must practice at least 10,000 hours in order to be considered successful. I agree with Gladwell’s claim that through excessive amounts of practice, in

How many hours of someone’s life are necessary to perfect a skill? 300? 5000? Perhaps try 10,000 hours. In this chapter from Outliers, “The 10,000-Hour Rule”, Malcolm Gladwell argues that talent isn’t innate, but takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill based on opportunity, talent, and practice. Throughout the chapter “The 10,000-Hour Rule”, Malcolm Gladwell effectively relies on logos--evidence from well-known figures and charts that show age similarities--to support his theory that it takes a particular window of time to offer someone the opportunity to practice for 10,000 hours to succeed at a skill. However, Gladwell ineffectively relies on repetition of evidence and failure to

10,000 hours is equivalent to 14 months, 60 weeks, 417 days, and success. Bill Joy, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, is an example of this, as he began programming his sophomore year of high school and continued in the “summers then the day and nights at his first year at Berkeley,” totaling about ten thousand hours (Gladwell 47). Bill Joy played an integral part in the creation of multiple computer programs still used today, and to get to that point he practiced programming. BIll Joy’s dedication to mastering his craft led him to work hard,

What exactly is an Outlier? Malcolm Gladwell explains to his readers in "Outliers" that an Outlier are "men and women who do things out of the ordinary." Gladwell explains to us that an in order to become successful, there are many factors that can lead to it including birth dates, community and culture, and legacy. He doesn't entirely believe that you can achieve success just from individual merit and hard work but that it takes the environment around you and opportunity to become successful. In the contrary, Gladwell writes a whole chapter titled, "The 10,000-Hour Rule" which he explains that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become successful in something. Then he mentions that it opportunity plays a part in this success, when speaking about The Beetles, and how they were giving an opportunity to play at a club for about ten thousand hours. If it wasn't for this opportunity that was given to The Beetles, Gladwell believes that they wouldn't be as who they are now and would have never been as successful and wealthy as they are now. Gladwell claims that social and economic background can determine whether or not a individual will succeed. This claim is false becaus a person who is wealthy can not be as successful as one who is not wealthy.

Building upon the previous chapter, we begin to understand how all the right ingredients for achievement and success can be present, and yet they may never happen without a stroke of luck. Becoming an expert at some skill is earned by putting in hard work across several hours, approximately 10,000 hours. Being born in the right year, or time

While the author, Malcolm Gladwell, does not dispute that hard work in a necessary component, we learn that many factors, lucky breaks, and some coincidences all occur in making high achievers into true outliers. We also learn that many of the richest, most famous, and most successful people in

We have all heard the phrase “practice makes perfect”. In supporting Malcolm’s 10,000-hour rule, this occurs when a person has “practiced” at their craft for more than 10,000 hours, making them greater than what they were, to begin with. It is a proven fact that the more people work and study hard at one particular subject they become better with age, like wine or cheese. The best example of this is famous classical composers were found that, in almost every case, the composers did not create their greatest work until they had been composing for at least ten years (www.newyorker.com, 2016). This is also seen with athletes who start practicing from a young age, and until they are older and more defined physically and mentally will achieve greatness in events like the Olympics that push their bodies beyond what humans are capable of because of the extensive training that they have had all their life. This also applies to children and their schooling. The average school year in the U.S. is 180 days with an average school day of 6.7 hours according to government figures. Along with the mass amounts of homework that they have to attend to leaves no room for a child to explore their own interests that apply to the real world. To that they may find what they will become great at as an

Gladwell backs up his theory with examples of many people who are considered experts. Bill Joy, an expert computer programmer and creator of Sun Microsystems, achieved this status through years spent at the computer. Mozart was not considered an expert until he had been composing for ten years. Bill gates, a master of computer programming and inventor of Microsoft, programmed computers as much as possible in the seven years before starting his company. To achieve 10,000 hours, one must work for five hours a day for five years. Gates was well over that by this time. Gladwell brings additional examples in the chapter, and one thing is clear – it takes time to become an expert. It does not happen by coincidence.

After reading The Sports Gene and Outliers, it is determined that people become “talented” with practice and there is no such thing as innate “talent”. In Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, in chapter 2 it is said, “...10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert-in anything.” This supports the idea that people become “talented” with practice. The quote supports the claim because if it is being said that it takes 10,000 hours to master anything, it can be assumed that people do not have innate “talent”, but rather have a level of mastery over many hours of practice. It could be said on the opposite side of the argument that if it takes 10,000 hours to master anything, “ Why is there

Outliers is a book that studies the factors that contribute to high levels of success. Gladwell examines several success stories ranging from Bill Gates to the Beatles. The book also looks at how cultural differences play a large part in perceived intelligence and rational decision making. Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule." This rules claimes that the key to achieving world class expertise in any skill is a matter of practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000

Malcolm Gladwell supports his claim that in cognitively demanding fields there are no naturals, by writing interesting anecdotes that show examples. For example, the article contains an anecdote in talking about how Mozart’s earliest works were not outstanding; his earliest masterwork was created when he was twenty one years old, showing he had already been practicing for ten years and he had to practice to create his masterwork. Gladwell argues that even Mozart was not a natural. According to Gladwell’s article, he shares a story about the Beatles and how they played eight hours every day for two hundred seventy nights over the course of a year and a half. This evidence shows that they practiced long hours, and when they got to the United States they