Inspiration and Perspiration * Late Night’s Open Thread
By SusanUnPC on December 28, 2008 at 11:15 PM in Current Affairs
I found this so fascinating, I’m listening to it for the third time.
Via Amazon’s review of this great new book, Outliers: The Story of Success
Amazon Best of the Month, November 2008: Now that he’s gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential?
continuing the Amazon description …
Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.”
Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”
Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots’ culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math.
But there’s more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples–and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps–Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. –Mari Malcolm
The last portion of Charlie Rose’s show was devoted to Fortune magazine’s Geoff Colvin, on the subject of his new book, “Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
From Amazon’s description of this important new book:
Expanding on a landmark cover story in Fortune, a top journalist debunks the myths of exceptional performance.
One of the most popular Fortune articles in many years was a cover story called “What It Takes to Be Great.” Geoff Colvin offered new evidence that top performers in any field–from Tiger Woods and Winston Churchill to Warren Buffett and Jack Welch–are not determined by their inborn talents. Greatness doesn’t come from DNA but from practice and perseverance honed over decades.And not just plain old hard work, like your grandmother might have advocated, but a very specific kind of work. The key is how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress and learn from your mistakes, that enables you to achieve greatness.
Now Colvin has expanded his article with much more scientific background and real-world examples. He shows that the skills of business—negotiating deals, evaluating financial statements, and all the rest—obey the principles that lead to greatness, so that anyone can get better at them with the right kind of effort. Even the hardest decisions and interactions can be systematically improved.
This new mind-set, combined with Colvin’s practical advice, will change the way you think about your job and career—and will inspire you to achieve more in all you do.
About the Author
Geoff Colvin, Fortune’s senior editor at large, is one of America’s most respected business journalists. He lectures widely and is the regular lead moderator for the Fortune Global Business Forum. A frequent guest on CNBC’s Squawk Box and other TV programs, Colvin appears daily on the CBS Radio Network, reaching seven million listeners each week. He also co-anchored Wall Street Week with Fortune on PBS for three years.
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Sounds like Colvin, lacking in any kind of talent, dismisses it as unimportant.
Luck is undeniably important (especially luck in the choosing of one’s parents, i.e. rich ones). But one also needs other things like the ability to determine the exact limits of the “rules”. To do anything creative one needs especially to be able to make one’s own “rules”. Not one’s own laws, of course. Sort of a variation of something that George Carlin said – “If you nail together something that nobody had nailed togethir before, somebody will buy it from you”.
Practice and hard work can’t tell one what things to “nail together”.
You have it right on luck. And Gladwell makes that absolutely clear in his segment. Bill Gates was so fortunate to have access to a great school like Lakeside in Seattle, and also access to the mainframe at the University of Washington. But then there was that he took advantage of that lucky opportunity… think of the hundreds of other students at Lakeside who didn’t do what Gates did, and the tens of thousands of students at the University of Washington who didn’t take advantage of what Gates did, going so far as to crawl out his bedroom window in the middle of the night to use that huge computer.
I disagree re:
“Practice and hard work can’t tell one what things to “nail together.”
Actually, it may take 500 to 10,000 times “nailing things together” to create something that is of such value that someone will buy it from you.
And the first 999 times or even 9,999 times, you may fail to create anything of any use to anyone.
But the act of nailing things together over and over and over again will be instructive. It has to be. You must pick up some skills, some observations, along the way. Then there’s that the sheer will involved — the persistence required — is essential to ever creating that item that anyone will want.
As Gladwell points out, besides luck, it also takes a minimum of 10,000 HOURS of practice to become truly good at something.
Or, as my father always used to say to me forty years ago, genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. He also used to say there is nothing new under the sun – it is all variations of about 7 univesal themes.
Actually, any way you look at it, Gladwell has his hypothesis of talent, hard work and luck confirmed in droves by examining only those cases that have by definition achieved outstanding success. No negative examples ? Who was it again arguing that Bill Gates could have skated by to become a super billionaire extraordinaire high IQ prodigy without lifting a finger? That’s such a straw man and the author’s ‘methodology’ so post hoc, there’s not even a prayer of teasing apart these various contributing factors.
Applying a “10,000 hour” standard, the Fab 4 (or 3) would have needed to play together 10 HOURS EVERY DAY for 3 years to achieve their magnificent burst onto the world scene in 1964. And that’s a conservative estimation. Gladwell’s own figures (or is it Lennon’s own conflated recollections ?) dispute this down by half or more. He must be under the impression other bands in Hamburg at the time were plausibly equal in talent, even more preservering, but unjustly lacking in lucky breaks. The reader need not dig very deep to get to the patently absurd.
I am reading how the Impeachment panel in Illinois will not be questioning Obama Advisors and read this…
.
Where does the Constitution say this? Article I Section 3 makes no mention of it. Section 5? “…a two third majority can expel a member”,for cause, but not if they not sworn in.
Anyone?
A journalist is the least likely to really know this particular topic. They have never written any software, never worked in a lab, never conducted an experiment, have never invented or patented anything. They generally have zero technical background. The most demanding thing they have ever had to do is word-smithing and putting forth exaggerations to make their stories more appealing to their publishers.
Journalist create narratives. Only those inside the tech industry really know the real story of Bill Gates and why he was successful. The popular version of the story (the one journalists know) are totally bogus.
I will see if I can get it on Kindle. Thanks.
.(Rick Pearson Chicago Tribune 12/27/08)
The 4 people are on the BO team. Any questions?
This is an interesting post. I hate to be negative, but Gladwell strikes me as a chop shop hack. Anyone who has slaved in a huge corporate environment knows that the world is full of hard working, success-deserving people who have simply not had the fortuity to be in the right place at the right time. There is only so much room at the top. The dynamic of luck is often the only thing that differentiates people who get ahead quickly from those for whom it takes longer (taking the hard work/capability/optimal environment thing as a given).
He totally lost me when it got to the ‘rice vs. wheat cultures’. I’ve lived in several places in Asia and can tell you the mathematical skills of the students there may be encouraged by the work ethic of the culture but do not come without a huge price. In Hong Kong you could read a different story every week about a kid jumping out of his/her high rise window because of the incredible pressure placed on them by their parents. To infer their achievements are due to some sort of ‘cultural DNA’ ignores the fact that a) they have very different motivations to push their children so hard and b) they also risk suffering these grave consequences for their actions. It minimizes these efforts and actions.
I tend to agree with Winston–this journalist (Gladwell) is only creating a narrative, in his case to sell books. Speaking of a narrative, I know this seems shallow and stupid, but what part does this guys’ wacky hair play in his success? I mean, if he was just ‘normal’ looking would his ideas sound as interesting? We do a lot of evaluating via images and Gladwell seems to nurture the nerdy, outlying, ‘genius’ persona for himself. *blink* Just sayin’…
Sonic Ninja Kitty (what a totally cool name):
I have to agree about Gladwell. As I am finishing my MA in ed, I had to read something called “critical race theory” which pretty much says that everything is based on unfair social structures and rejects the “white” cultural assumption of merit. However, no one seems to remember that the Chinese had the oldest meritocracy in the world…and it’s totally true that the pressure in East Asian societies is intense to succeed academically and professionally. Although we don’t need to go to their extreme with it, inspiring a bit more motivation to work harder to achieve, which is still necessary in addition to talent, would be a really good thing in America right about now. Many of my Asian friends comment on how little value our culture places on academic achievement and are dismayed by it.
Magic Puzzle Box, Wow! How interesting. Was this a ‘discussion’ theory or one that you were expected to internalize? How did you feel about its ties to the Frankfurt School and Marxism? (I am reading a book right now by F.A. Hayek, who was in the Austrian School–opposite the Frankfurtians. I hope to set up a running discussion about it on my blog–sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com–please come and visit!) Education, economics and politics are inextricably linked. Bill Ayers is no dummy.
I totally agree with trying to motivate kids more. Opportunities shamelessly abound in this country and we all seem to spend our time whining about how there’s never enough ‘for me’! I saw this documentary called “Two Million Minutes” about the approximately 2 mil minutes a kid has in the formative high school years and what they choose to do with them. It compared an American, an Indian, and a Chinese kid–guess who was living the good life and who was working their butts off? The thing is we assume we will always have the luxury to go on like this–we are setting our kids up to be left in the dust.
Now we have a PE who is all image, no sacrifice, and the media thinks its just grand. We are beginning to believe our own cultural narrative. The icing on the cake for me was Caroline Kennedy’s coming out for the NY senate seat with obviously zero preparation. Do we really believe it is so easy to achieve the things we want in life?
America is the land of instant gratification. It’s been developing over the last 40 years or so. Now with the immediate access to the media via computers and 24 hour news networks with tons of “you gotta have it now” advertising it’s only developed faster. Our society has slipped into the how can I get this with as little work as possible mode. American Kids attention spans, and the ability to focus and work with a purpose is becoming non-existent. Now many of these kids are adults and are losing big time to foreign cultures who still know the value of working/practicing and focusing longer than a nano-second to learn the skills and knowledge to be the best at what they want to do. Some young Adults now in our society have lost the true work ethic and it is showing up big time. Look at all the videos of people during the election not really knowing or caring about who they were voting for. They saw a good PR on the illusionary OB and they wanted him “now.” None took the time to really look at what he truly was. The Obama team took advantage of this and were very successful in getting a whole bunch of citizens to take the bait. Ob’s team is smugly arrogant now and will continue their control for years because the American public is becoming more clueless by the day. The dumbing down of our citizenry is rapidly expanding. Why are there so many new ways of letting kids “pass” their subjects in school just to move them along. Less than a 50% grade is acceptable in some HS now. They graduate and don’t have the knowledge to provide for themselves. And the Ayers and Obama minions of the world love it. People will be beholden to the govt. for their existence because they are too ignorant to take care of themselves and the “new” rulers will make sure they control them forever. We need to revamp our education system and get away from public schools which are govt. run. Will this happen? I have my doubts and I am afraid for my little granddaughters and their future.
Did you notice in the interview when Charlie Rose asked Gladwell about the success of Barack Obama, he (Gladwell) went immediately to the rice culture vs. wheat culture? Not a word said about how Obama’s “luck” propelled him to where he is now. Obama did not grow up in a rice culture. And by the way, the rice culture could not be used as the explanation why Asian kids study more or take their education seriously. Given that agriculture does not provide enough avenues for success, Asian kids have to take their education seriously so they will have more chances for success than working in the field. The doctors, engineers and nurses have all migrated to foreign countries to earn more money and help their poverty stricken, usually, lazy relatives just waiting for dole outs from successful relatives working abroad. That is the explanation. There was one PBS special about an Amerisian girl who went to Vietnam to locate her Vietnamese mother. All her relatives were demanding that she gives money to her elderly mother. She was devastated and was torn because that was not part of her intention of reconnecting with her birth mother.
I read “Blink,” and thought it was much ado about little or nothing. It really was nothing new.
There are several things about Asian children being better at math and just learning period. As a former teacher I think it has a lot to do with EXPECTATIONS.
Asian parents value education (and I don’t mean just saying they value it) and EXPECT their children to learn. And they do not particiapte in the old American game of blaming the teacher first. In Asian homes the parents believe it is the child who must learn and who must study.
It always amazes me when Asian children became valedictorinas and such and people say how smart Asian children are. They seem not to realize it was the VERY SAME educational system that produced these children as produced so many American failures. WHY IS THAT? Why doesn’t someone look into that? The same school system that American children do not flourish in produces briliant Asian graduates.
I believe it is that Asian parents expect and demand the kind of hard study and work that is required to succeed. American parents today simply do not believe that it takes hard work and sweat to succeed. They want everything handed to them on a silver platter. Just give me that ‘A’ ’cause I deserve it. Obama is the poster child of this generation of children.
And yes, I know, sometimes it is the teacher and the school system. There are poor teachers and poor systems. I am not over looking that fact.
Bert, I think another factor is that non-American parents are not burdened with the self esteem bogeyman. It limits how demanding you can be of your kids, for better or worse, don’t you think?
This only applies directly to Japan because I speak the language…but if you think cramming for a test for eight or more years eight or more hours a day is a great way to ‘learn,’ then you would love it there. Yes, recent changes in the content reflect the current emphasis on “higher level” problem solving, creative thinking and expressive writing. But this only means national textbooks have modified their curriculum standards. Junior high, high schools and cram schools (from elementary on) still teach to the test, and probably always will.
Parents are also concerned with and protective of student self-esteem or there would be a policy of holding back failing students and social promotion would be replaced with grade retention.
Sonic Ninja Kitty, I think your name is cool, too.
You are absolutely correct with regard to self esteem. Don’t get me started on the self-esteem philosophy in education and in too many homes today. Self-esteem is earned by working hard and succeeding. In schools today it is handed out for just showing up. Gives children an over-inflated ego.
bert, those are very astute comments about perception and right on the money.
Got this email today. It’s funny!