Outliers: The Story Of Success Malcolm Gladwell Subsection 1: First Quarter By: Jose Maria Linares

1. Roseto Valfortore: Intro Town in the foothills of the Italian Apennines. Exodus of Rosetans to America, ended up near Bangor, Pennsylvania 1894: 1200 Rosetans applied for American Passport Roseto, Pennsylvania

1. Roseto: Issue Heart attack epidemic in the US Leading cause of death in men under 65 Stewart Wolf, physician, investigated Roseto for heart attack death rates Heart disease in Roseto, 50% of US No suicide, alcoholism, or drug addiction Roseto was an outlier, a place were the normal rules do not apply.

2. Roseto: Hypotheses Dietary practices –Found out Rosetans struggled with obesity (41% of calories came from fat) Genetics –Tracked down relatives of Rosetans, but these did not share their heatlhy condition Location –People in Bangor and Nazareth had death rates from Heart Disease 3 times higher.

2. Roseto: Conclusion “The Rosetans were healthy because of where they came from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny town in the hills.”“The Rosetans were healthy because of where they came from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny town in the hills.” Understand heart attacks in a new way: looking beyond the individual Culture he or she was part of have a profound effect

Second Quarter

3. Correlation of Intellect and Achievement Through the second quarter of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell supports his argument of success by juxtaposing achievement and intellect. According to him, “by no stretch of the imagination or of standards of genius is the ‘gifted group’ as a whole ‘gifted.’ We have seen that intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated” (Gladwell 91). He exemplifies such statement with the case of Terman’s ‘Termites’ by demonstrating how these, despite having an IQ above 135, didn’t become successful people. According to Gladwell, the IQ test is an improper measure of success since it doesn’t evaluate a person’s practical intelligence. Therefore, he concludes that after breaking the threshold of a “good enough” IQ, the practical intelligence becomes the tie-breaker.

3. Defining Practical Intelligence Besides possessing a high IQ, which is required for achieving high education and knowledge, the EQ (Emotional Quotient) is crucial for a person’s Practical Intelligence. As he defines it, practical intelligence includes: “knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for a maximum effect” (Gladwell, 109). Thus, practical intelligence becomes a tool for maximizing the IQ. While IQ is a measure of innate ability, the EQ is acquired knowledge. However, such knowledge is shaped throughout life and here; Gladwell mentions how parenting (during childhood) is essential to the development of Practical Intelligence.

4. Parenting and Its Nature To shape his argument on parenting, Gladwell alludes to a study done by Annete Lareau on such matter. According to Lareau, wealthier parents are heavily involved in their children’s free time, while children in poor families are more independent. She states that for poor children, their play time “wasn’t soccer practice twice a week. It was making up games outside with their siblings and other kids in the neighborhood” (Gladwell 121). Here, the contrast of wealthy-kids and poor- kids childhoods reflects the eventual development of different personalities. While poor children develop a sense of independence, wealthier ones develop a dominant personality. Meanwhile, middle-class children build up a sense of “entitlement,” as they enjoy the right to pursue individual preferences. As a result, Gladwell concludes that different personalities start to evolve from the moment people are toddlers, until they die with distinguished traits.

4. Different Children From Different Parenting Background Furthermore, these children evolve to becoming different people, with different ratios of Practical Intelligence. Gladwell suggests that contrasting parenting backgrounds ignite a variety of distinct personalities due to different experiences through childhood. Also, children in different economic classes establish particular relationships with their parents. For example, Gladwell mentions that the working class and poor children were characterized by “an emerging sense of distance, distrust, and constraint. They didn’t know how to get their way or how to customize whatever the environment they were in” (Gladwell 130). On the other hand, wealthier kids establish dominant traits, and are able to shape and blend the different situations presented by their environment. Hence, when these children grow up, only some will develop the “social savvy” skills needed to manage a situation wisely. Even if all of them are gifted with exceptional IQs, intellect is not the only ingredient of success.