Chapter 6 – Harlan, Kentucky

Harlan, Kentucky was a small town in the Appalachian Mountains where two, warring families fought each other to the death during the early 19^th century. Harlan wasn’t the only town in the Appalachian Mountains that grew restless, but several others as well were erupting in bloodshed. How could the living in mountains be much more aggressive than those living anywhere else? Easy. Take a farming town in the Midwest for instance. They grow crops, rely on each other, sell their surplus for capital, and exist on established property. However, in the untamable land of the Appalachians, herders must migrate their livestock and protect their animals at all times. This insecurity causes hostility between neighbors and competition arises. Similar characteristics of these unfriendly villages were compared to Ulster in Ireland and other various towns in Italy and Spain, all portraying a proud and assertive heritage. It is theorized that the geography of one’s ancestral origination plays a key role in future family values.

                Two psychologists at the University of Michigan constructed an experiment in the early 1990’s. They wanted to find if swearing at someone would change their behavior during a test.  The control group was a group of boys who completed a questionnaire while a professor observed them. The experiment was a similar group, only this time, while trying to get to their seats, the confederate/administrator called a random boy an “asshole”. To check the results of the insult, saliva samples were taken and even a handshake at the end of the quiz was part of the experiment.  The results were similar to that of herders and farmers. Northerners, cultured farmers, were amused at the insult and they remained unchanged. The southerners, however, those who had a cultural background of cowboys and herders took a personal offence to this.

                From this other example, Gladwell makes another firm point that outliers arise from those with proud heritages who are striving for a fight, always want the best, and won’t be insulted. In the next chapter, we’ll see how these two cultures become distinct.

The Trouble With Geniuses, Part 2 (Chapter 4)

Looking back at Chris Langan, the smartest man in the world grew up "dirt poor" and wasn't left with a whole lot of options for college. He chose Reed College in Oregon because of a full ride scholarship and had a rough time fitting in with a new culture. Chris grew up in the country, and was not accustomed to the rowdy coast which caused him to seek refuge away in his studies rather than in his peers. When his freshman year of college came to a close, his scholarship had to be renewed, pretty common, not unusual in the least. His mother refused to fill out the financial statement and Chris had to drop. After a year and a half of random jobs, construction worker and firefighter, Chris had regained his stance and decided to enroll at Montana State University. Immediately there was a problem. Chris had 2 classes that overlapped each other so he went to his school counselor to push one back to the afternoon. “Well, son, after looking at your transcript at Reed College, I see that you have yet to learn that everyone has to make sacrifices to get an education. Request denied.” Pretty bogus, huh? Chris gave up on college, dropped out of Montana, and got by working more construction, took factory jobs, civil service jobs, and was even a bouncer at a bar. In the meantime, in hopes of exposing his expertise, Langan read all about the things he would have learned in school and even developed something he called the “Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe”. Though he humbly admits, “I am a guy who has a year and a half of college, and at some point this will come to the attention of the editor, as he going to take the paper and send it off to the referees, and these referees are going to try to look me up, and they are not going to find me. They’ll say ‘this guy has a year and a half of college. How can he know what he’s talking about?’”
Robert Oppenheimer, the brain behind WWII’s atom bomb, went to Harvard and Campridge University had a dream of a being a physician. His tutor, Patrick Blackett, compelled the young Oppenheimer to attend an experimental physics event, which he despised. In retaliation, Oppenheimer mixed up some chemicals and attempted to poison Blackett who reported him to his authorities. Oppenheimer was put on probation. Not expelled, not jailed, just on probation. Langan would not have had such luck. Despite this, Oppenheimer was still chosen to lead the atom-bomb construction. At 38 and a theorist, he was chosen over senior engineers and experimenters, people who, debatably, should have handled the job. How was this possible? What did Oppenheimer have that Langan didn’t? A silver tongue. General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, was smitten by Oppenheimer’s interview, if I can call it that. In Langan’s shoes, Robert Oppenheimer would have been slammed up tight, but it was his assertiveness that got him out of that sticky situation and perhaps the most important job for winning the war.

Among higher-income families, it is common that adults’ drive wears down on their children. For instance, say a child from a higher income family fails a test. Their parent is more likely to redirect the blame for their child’s err onto the teacher, rather than a middle class or lower class parent who will more likely regard their child as responsible. Why? Upper class parents, respectively, have climbed the latter to success and have leveled with authority. They’ve had to work for a high position within their career, they have charisma and they know people’s limits. This passes onto their children who learn, push themselves, and respectfully question their authority.
Ok yes, this sounds pretty blunt, I'll admit, but please, take it up with Gladwell.

The Trouble With Geniuses, Part 1

Christopher Langan, known as the smartest man in the world with his IQ of 195, appeared on the hit game-show, 1 vs. 100. A chunk of the chapter is dedicated to describing Christopher's innate desire for knowledge. He read books, studied math, taught himself multiple languages, played guitar, sketched pictures all independently from school. He could ace a test by checking his notes before class. He was brilliant. But on the game-show, he kept his cool throughout the game show until he reached $250,000. Langan took the money, and that's the end of the story.

What Gladwell is trying to say here is that though high IQ's are admirable, there comes a point when they have a very small impact on society. Meaning, 120 and 200 translate very similarily to the real world.

In the 20's, a psychology professor named Lewis Terman recorded the IQ's of 250,000 students across the US and found that about 1,470 of them had IQ's ranging from 140 to 200. He hypothesized that these few would be the next 'elite' of the United States. Well, he turned out to be wrong. Only a small selection did something with their lives, CEO's and politicians. But the rest remained very standard, and led ordinary lives.

Measuring intelligence branches beyond one's IQ. The Raven, a test that measures abstract reasoning

They get much harder.

Another test called the Divergence test would be as simple as the one given in Outliers:

Write down as many diferecnt uses that you can think of for the following objects:

A brick

A blanket

This test would be based on creativity and improvising, something that an IQ test could never measure. This chapter states that a true genius is not measured on one intelligence, but more his overall potential as an outlier.

Chapter 2, The 10,000 Hour Rule

  Gladwell hits Chapter 2 off with the story of a guy you've never heard of, Bill Joy. Now Bill attended the U of Michigan in '71, fell in love with the newly added Computer Center, switched schools to Berkely and ended up being the guy who wrote the code for Java. Yeah, the Java we use for all our videos, Mr. Underappreciated Joy was the humble soul who kindly coded our software. But why does this mean anything to us at all? Because just like the hockey players hailing from Canada, born in the right month and all, there is also something very unique about Bill. He was born in 1954, and similarily with the rest of his fellow coders at Berkely--not to mention Bill Gates and Stephen Jobs around the same years too. Why is this important? Because all these brilliant brains came about when this technology was coming about for them to manipulate. Bill Gates, who Gladwell also describes greatly, was born into a wealthy family, went to one of the few colleges that offered coding programs, and better yet was able to code for free. Gladwell gives more examples, but you get it--these guys came about at sheer luck of birthdates.
  The Beatles, on the other hand, also had a fair amount of luck play into their success. These guys had the blessing to be discovered by Bruno, a Hamburg native who needed some entertainment besides girls for his strip clubs, offered to let the Beatles play there. They accepted, and played nonstop around the clock, creating more music to fill their nightly playlists, and practicing before a sleazy crowd. Why this is so relevant? Well, the Beatles quickly accumulated many hours under their belt to give them at least some credibility. They were heard, got paid enough to start touring, and people began to love their music. Why were they good? Because they had practice.  About 10,000 hours worth.
  Similarily, Bill Gates and Joy also labored at coding for years, and Gladwell will tell you that the average of all these brilliant minds' practice times sums up to 10,000. Don't believe me? Mozart is another example. Gladwell says that all of Mozart's peers begins practicing their instruments at the same rate when they are younger, say 6 or 7. But as they grew older, their skills set them apart. Not because any one child was more skilled than the other naturally, just that their practice time would be much more than the other. Practicing for many years over time breeds superior talents in any field. This, no one can doubt.

Chapter 1, The Matthew Effect

I'm hooked

  Before I begin telling you my resulting opinion's of Malcom Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success, I want to prep you on how it's going to be around here. My writing style is going to be very relaxed, very laid back. This is a blog, the language of blogging is to never be too serious, and I absolutely won't be. This is, after all, an extra credit assignment for my psych class-- not that i dont take that class seriously, but the only motive for writing this blog, actually sharing my ideas and gained knowledge, comes from the desire for the best damn grade in the class. Also, I'm aware that Mr. Gladwell is a journalist, trying to "sell" his literature. Like I mentioned, I'm hooked, but i'm also aware that this is writin merely to convey only what Mr. Gladwell wants me to know. Those tricky english majors, can't ever take them too seriously. And without further adieu, here comes my blog! Let's take it from the top!

  History proves valuable to psychologists in tracing back to causes of future events that later take some scrounging to solve. The description of Roseto, PA illustrated the fellowship of immigrants greater than a textbook ever could. The hustle and bustle of a homogenous race merely misplaced in another atmosphere showed no slow in pace. When Stewart Wolf was introduced, I was positive he would be our first outlier that would put Roseto on the map. I was suprised, as Wolf obviously was, at the death rates of Roseto residents. What on earth? Could it be that such a tight-knit cutlure held the cure to a long, lasting, prosperous life? Yeah, maybe proposterous. But when Wolf gathered more data from the residents' cousins, I was even more baffled. It wasn't the new food, it wasn't the labor, but the hospitality that their culture failed to surrender, and thus, held the key to their prosperity.
  It's a shame that this successful "Outlier" didn't catch on as a norm, or perhaps it died out among other parts of America because urbanization was so much more influential in creating a progressing culture, not a healthy, hearty one. It was, after all, the Italians who relocated here, not the other way around. Their secret never caught on, and it's a shame for optimistic students to see a rewarding culture die in a new country. However, this book isn't about cultures lasting, this is definitely not another history book i won't read. Outliers, as I'm finding out, is about the little things that go beyond expectations. The little head start, or the slight variation that makes all the difference.