I have to hand it to Chris Matyszczyk. His CNET review of Malcolm Gladwell’s already historical and world-famous book, Outliers, is a real snark-fest and quite a jolly little thing. Here’s an excerpt of Malcolm Gladwell’s story of failure:
It is a fine book that takes you many fewer than 10,000 hours to read. However, it is, perhaps, the most misnamed book of all time.
“Outliers” is not the story of success. It is the story of failure. Most of us, when we analyze our lives on cold, damp bar stools, fail. If we didn’t, there wouldn’t be shrinks. Or tequila.
And Mr. Gladwell’s book is perhaps the most reassuring of any that has ever been written for those whose lives have vast holes of unfulfillment that only an extension of Google Earth called Google Soul (you think they won’t try and create it, those googlies?) could identify.
“Outliers” encourages us to look for every single explanation as to why we didn’t do what we hoped we would do. It tells us there are far more than we had ever imagined. It asks us to really analyze how the whole world is far more against us than for us. Except for a lucky few.
