Book Review: Outliers

Outliers, the third book by Malcolm Gladwell, is a book I have been looking forward to reading for a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed his first two books (see my reviews for The Tipping Point and Blink).

In this book, Gladwell tries to explain success. As he researched, he discovered some remarkable trends within the successful category. Successful hockey players are almost always born in January-March. Successful New York City lawyers are 2nd generation Jewish-Americans. When looking at a list of the Top 75 All-Time Richest Humans, there are 14 Americans born in the 1830s. This leads to the big idea of Outliers: It is not just a matter of who you are, but also where you come from and how you are brought up.

Overall, I do not think this book is as clear or tight as his previous two. Nor was it filled with as many psychological and academic studies. Instead, this book was more about the stories of individuals, which proved to work just as well. In the Epilogue, Gladwell even provides a personal story, retelling how his own mother had become successful. The book is a great read, but slightly below Blink. Rating: 4.5/5