Outliers: The Story of Success

I like the work of Malcolm Gladwell a lot, and this third book of his did not disappoint. Outliers looks deeply at the circumstances that surround success. As always, Gladwell uses a lot of interesting facts to back up his ideas, and he introduces us to a lot of interesting people. He discusses topics that are familiar enough to most of us that there is something of interest for everyone.

Critics might say that Gladwell stereotypes and generalizes, but he addresses those critics by saying that just because something is true of a particular culture, that doesn’t mean it is bad; he believes that we should embrace the things about our culture that make it unique, not dismiss those cultural norms as bad or stereotypical.

The book is an easy read – I read it in about a day. And it’s packed with enough interesting information that I found myself sharing all of it over dinner with family and friends, and probably will continue to do so for a while. I highly recommend it both for Gladwell fans and for fans of pop culture.