Outliers
- Outliers - people who do extraordinary things
- we tend to focus only on the individuals - their characteristics, habits, and personality traits
- in addition to their intelligence and personalities, they were beneficiaries of hidden advantages, special opportunities, and cultural legacies
- Success is not just a matter of individual merit
- Achievement = (talent + preparation + effort) + (advantage + opportunity + culture)
- we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success with a society that provides opportunities for all
Opportunity
- Accumulative Advantage - little difference leads to an opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger, and that edge in turn leads to another opportunity, which makes the initially small difference bigger still
- 10,000 Hour Rule - minimum number of deliberate practice hours required to achieve excellence at performing a complex task
- Analytical Intelligence - innate ability; measured by IQ tests
- Practical Intelligence - learned knowledge; social savvy; ability to read situations correctly; knowing what to say to whom, when to say it, and how to say it for maximum effect
- Divergence Test - measure of imagination
- Concerted Cultivation - actively foster and assess a child’s talents, opinions and skills; wealthy parents’ parenting style
- Accomplishment of Natural Growth - let children grow and develop on their own; poor parents’ parenting style
- Cultural Advantage - life skills learned from parents necessary to succeed in the world; being exposed to different experiences, teamwork, interact with adults, speak up when needed, assert yourself with people in authority, etc.
- Work Satisfaction = autonomy + challenge + connection between effort and reward
Legacy
- Culture of Honor - culture developed among herdsman living in harsh mountainous areas where the constant threat of losing their animals to theft, resulted in aggressiveness and having a tough reputation becoming a better survival strategy than cooperation (which is a better strategy for farmers)
- Mitigated Speech - any attempt to downplay or sugarcoat the meaning of what is being said
- Power Distance Index - measure of how much a particular culture values and respects authority
- Transmitter vs Receiver Orientation - who’s responsibility it is to make sure ideas are communicated clearly and unambiguously
- Mechanically vs Skill oriented agriculture - using more equipment vs better managing existing farms in order to achieve higher yields
- SSLANT - Smile, Sit up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod when being spoken to, Track with your eyes
- Achievement Gap - difference in test scores between kids from rich and poor households
- number of school days per year: USA (180), South Korea (220), Japan (243)