Malcolm Gladwell writes fairly easy reading NF that make for good conversations. It's good book club material, because he has a lot of starting points but no one has to pay too much attention to the details. Outliers: The Story of Success fits that mode. The theory is that great success is never purely the result of being a wonderful person -- everyone needs good luck and hard work. This did not strike me as all that original an idea, but it gave Gladwell the excuse to write a group of entertaining essays covering the luck and hard work behind several success stories: star hockey players -- born early in the year, Bill Gates -- given a computer in junior high, Asian kids -- taught to work hard, Gladwell's mom -- assigned an extra scholarship.
Clearly, the reason I haven't achieved my life goal of world domination is that I didn't get a lucky break. And that I'm lazy. For want of a nail!
2 comments:
I'd totally be the world's greatest detective, except that I had the misfortune to have a happy childhood with wonderful parents who weren't brutally murdered.
Maybe someone will murder your spider plant? Gladwell does say we can learn new patterns if we aren't lucky enough to have them fall in our lap.
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