I just finished reading (listening to the audiobook of) "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. All of his books are interesting, and really 'up my alley'. This particular book is about challenging the typical (at least western) intuition about what makes people successful. Certainly in America, there is conventional wisdom that successful people are the smartest and brightest-- that they are talented. And that what made them successful was their own personal effort and achievement. This 'pulled up by the bootstraps' kind of mentality certainly was apparent to me when I was in middle and high school and university.
The purpose of the book is to show that often times, if not all the time, success is much more a product of extraordinary but arbitrary circumstance. This isn't to say that successful people are not partly responsible for their success, but that it is not as large of a factor as one might suspect given our cultural biases.
For example, the book opens with an interesting observation (and I'm getting this stats wrong, but they're really close): if you observe 'successful' hockey players in north america (NHL, etc.) there is an interesting stat: 40% of successful hockey players were born between January and March. Another 40% between March and June; only 10% of 'successful' hockey players were born between October and December! The reason for this is that the age cutoff for league play when you are a child (like 8 y/o) is Jan 1st. Thus, if you were born really close to the first of the year, then you would be held back, and the next year the league you joined would be almost 12 months older than you December bday buddies. When you are 8 y/o 11 or 12 months of development makes a tremendous amount of difference: you are bigger, stronger, more mature. You are able to gain a false sense of confidence because you excel over your 11 and 12 month old team mates. When the scouts come to recruit into the youth competitive leagues, these are the kids much more likely to be recruited. In competitive leagues, you practice 2x as much, and get much higher quality coaching than recreational players. So by the time you enter high school or college-- you really are better and more talented! And this is all due to an arbitrary differentiation based on birthday. This has nothing to do with talent or skill-- but something completely arbitrary. The same can be seen with kids who were held back in school in kindergarten and first grade: they are slightly older, and slightly more mature. This allows them to master the material just a little better, and whats more important is they believe they are smarter, and this belief drives them to be even more academic than their peers who comparatively believe that they 'dont get it' or 'arent smart enough'.
I found a lot of this echoing my own life. I was held back in kindergarten. I was always one of the oldest in the class. I always felt that I was smarter than my peers in grade school, and was usually more well behaved. Now the book doesn't try to claim that these are alone reasons for success-- there are chapters on parenting and cultural legacies as well; but the point is that my birthday being in August and causing me to be held back was a completely arbitrary advantage that I was awarded for no effort of my own. I can see many of these small, coincidental, and arbitrary advantages in my life: I was arrested when I was 15 for making fake IDs for my friends. Its a story for another day, but it forced me to get a job and hang out with different friends. The circumstances that lead to this were very random, and yet this has CERTAINLY contributed to my success. I'm still very young (well old to some of you!), but I do feel like I have accomplished a lot for someone my age, and I am happy with my 'direction' so far. But I have to recognize that so much of this is not my doing, but through wonderful happenstance. It is humbling to recognize this, and that's healthy I think.
One thing I know for sure: when I was arrested or any of the other 'bad' things that happened to me when I was 14-18-- I hated them at the time. I thought I had bad luck, and that they were completely bad things. It was only a few years ago that I realized the amazingly positive impact that they had on my life. So if nothing else, please recognize that the bad things that happen in life may in fact turn out to be pivotal in shaping who you become. We can at least be hopeful that our pain has some merit-- if nothing else the hope itself has some utility.
As much as I complain about some things, I am happy that I am who I am. I have to recognize that both the 'good' and the 'bad' make me 'Steve', and for that I am thankful.
A nice treat for the (probably none) readers that made it this far :-)
Much Love,
Steve
11 comments:
By contrast, I was put into first grade when I should have been in kindergarten by my age. I was smart enough for it, and I always did well in school. But I started first grade in a room full of strangers, and I felt like an outsider. The feeling continued in various forms and with varying intensity through my school and college years and on into adult life.
I often feel like I should have been back. Things could turned out differently.
I enjoyed this post very much.
[And I am interested in hearing your story about you getting arrested. :D]
@x
been back? or been black? I will have to make a whole post about it, because it was pretty stupid & funny.
@natur
Yep- I can see direct links to current 'behaviors' I have and early memories as well. Another one of the chapter states a stat comparing young chinese children to english speaking children. It turns out that chinese speaking children can count at a much younger age than english speaking kids. Part of the reason for this is that mandarin has a very 'logical' number representation. English by contrast is illogical-- there are few patterns. For example, thirteen has the 'digit' as the first syllable ('thir' = 3), and the 'tens place' as the second syllable (teen = 10). Whereas other two digit numbers like 42 have the opposite structure: first syllable 'forty' = 40, and the second syllable is the 'digit' place. There are many inconsistencies like this in english. Also, some of the digits require long tones and even multiple syllables (se-ven). Mandarin has very succint tones for all single digits, and multi-digit numbers are logically structured: two digit numbers are always the 'tens place' + 'tone meaning tens' + digit: like english equivalent of '2 tens 4' for 24. This is very useful beqause adding 42 + 13, means '1 tens 3' + '4 tens 2'-- the equation to add them is built in to the language. The net result is that mandirin speaking kids learn to count and add much sooner than english speaking kids. Also, by learning to count in mandarin, the logic in the system becomes apparent, and it 'makes sense'...whereas english kids are forced to deduce that 'math' doesn't make sense. This feeling of not understanding sticks with many throughout school.
Its a very interesting book.
Steve
Is that you in the photo?
It took me a while with this figure thingy in your reply to naturgesetz.
In German we say double digit numbers the other way around w.r.t. English: 24 is four-twenty and 13 is three-ten. Though I always thought this is a disadvantage, because if somebody dictates you a number you have to write it in a different order (you have to build a mental LIFO). But with respect to the syllables German is as bad as English.
@gomad
Wow- that is really interesting! I never heard that before. That must be very difficult! I wonder how it came to be that way?
@samad
Unfortunately, no... I wish it were :-) (either one really)
Well, it is good that you chose to "learn from your mistakes."
When I started 1st grade, I was in an accelerated class because I already knew my ABCs, could count to 100 and could read and write simple sentences.
At a critical point, we had to move to Arkansas for 4 months (that was when Mom and Dad got a divorce).
Anyway, I was put into a class where the teacher did not teach us anything. Mostly we took naps. When we went back home, and I was put into a slower class because I did not read "on my level".
Not once did anybody try to get me to catch up to my reading level until 6th grade. From that point on, throughout school I always had to "prove" myself. I was always put into slower class, only to get tested out and moved up to either on level, or accelerated, classes.
Even now I feel that people assume the worst and so they don't expect much. I have to prove myself every time. This can be frustrating at times.
I am a November baby, and looking back, I do see that I was a little older, or more developed physically, than most kids in my class. Although I don't see it that it was an advantage academically.
I've often wondered what would happen if I'd been held back. I actually have a birthday in September, but somehow I was let into kindergarten too early. I entered college as a 17-year-old. It was a little awkward... on the bright side, since I'm so tall, it apparently balanced out, and maybe even worked to my advantage. I'm younger than my colleagues, but people tend to assume I'm much more experience because of the way I carry myself and my height. If you're tall, go read "The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High." It's rather similar to Outliers. ;-)
Heh. verification word: "reterdsh"
Eh, I'm 6' 0" so 'average' not tall.
Steve
I do believe that hard work will get you places in life. But i can also believe that circumstances can change ones life dramatically no matter how bright and smart you are. I also believe we learn far more from our failures then we do ourt successes
take care and be safe
bob
it all makes a lot of sense to me. in the UK, with a birthday in august, you'd be one of the youngest in the school year, as the cutoff date is 1st september.
i know some kids whose birthdays are in september, i.e. almost if not the oldest, and this has definitely made a difference to their progress.
happy birthday for soon :)
torchy!
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