Outside Reading Blog #6

I have now finished the novel, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. It finshed by putting everything that Gladwell had conveyed throughout the novel and put together and showed you how it worked. It showed how everything together made it easy to understand how success actually happens. I really liked this book because it took my idea of success and turned it in every direction. Sitting down and reading this book, I really had to think and I couldn't just flow through the pages like a childrens book. Gladwell made you involved and made you think things before you could understand the next part and he made me try to start thinking outside the box. I use to believe that successful people were just better than everyone else and that they were naturally that way. That is not the case though, it depends on who you are, where you are and where you are from, why you are here, when you are here or there, what you do here or there, how you that here or there, and many other factors that must be added to the equation. For example, someone like Lebron James, its not as simple as make baby=greatest basketball player living. It would be something like make baby+make baby at this time+live here with kid+kid gets these opportunites+kid does this+kid has this ethnicity=greastest basketball player living. People should read this novel and start realizing that and stop just glorifying could have been normal people. They should thank places and times and people and everything that helped that person become successful, they deserve the credit not the successful person who just got lucky. That's why I liked this novel and I would recommend it to anybody out there wanting a book that is just a normal perspective. Something that makes you think more and look more closely at things.

-Jason

Outside Reading Blog #5

I am reading the novel, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. For this blog read pages 160 through 220 and I wanted to follow up on my old letter and write a new one on the things I have read since the old letter. Here it goes:

Dear Mr.Gladwell,
my name is Jason Swenson and this is the second letter I have sent to you. I am reading your novel, Outliers, which I believe is a fantastic and interesting novel, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. I have tested some of your theories on me and people in my life to see if they were spot on. I came to some bumps in the road on your topic of why people are successful in school (Read Blog #1). You see, I am one of the youngest kids in my grade and I have never had the situations given to the younger side of a grade occur to me. I feel in no way less mature or intelligent to my peers. Not saying I believe I am better but I am not worse. So how do you explain that your theory isn't right in this case? You seem to believe that success has nothing to do with personal merit and I fully agree with your beliefs, but there must be something personal involved if I am a younger one and I am not what you think, "younger=no success". Maybe I just have not looking back far enough or tried to find reasons for this but also you maybe have to say peronal things do have to do with it. Anyways, I don't want to have you sitting, reading a letter all day written by someone who doesn't even have their high school diploma. That would just be a waste of your time that could be spent reaching those 10,000 hours of writting you need to perfect and master it. I also want to know how such ideas come up in your head. You have written two other novels that I have read that have been just as interesting as the one I am reading right now. How do you come up with such thinking-outside-the-box type novels that all have such an interesting perspective? You must have spent 10,000 hours on thinking differently, lived around inventors and engineers, living in the industrial revolution when new ideas flourished. That is me talking in your way and trying to create something the way you do. I hope you can answer the questions and reach me as soon as possible.

-Jason

Outside Reading Blog #4

I am still not finished with the novel, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. For this blog I read pages 120 to 150. It was about Jewish immigrants during the early 1900's. It talked about how when and where you were affected your success. For the jewish immigrants coming from Europe to America, living in New York would bring them great success. Having knowledge of clothes making from their homeland, they used their skill to become successful clothes sellers. Selling clothes was just being explored at the turn of the 19th century and that was the best time to get involved. Jewish immigrants had experience and knowledge needed at the time giving them a head start in the eary industry. Back then, most people didn't buy pre-clothes, they bought their own cloth and they then made their own clothes. Jewish people changed that by selling clothes on the side streets of New York. It marked the birth of the clothes industry. Since they were in New York, Jewish Immigrants, and it was the end of the 19th century, they were going to be successful. Thats how Gladwell show how who when and where tie into success.

I wanted to see another "success" story that I could seem to see if that worked for and it turns out the easiest one I could think of was the Z Boys of the 1970's in southern California. They started a new type of skateboarding and the reasons why are shown now. They were surfers, so they new how to control boards and they got ideas from surfing that they tried on skateboards. They lived in California, a place with hot climate which meant alot of backyard pools. They had access to pools so that they could try their new styles and tricks. So who is Z Boys, where is southern California, and when is the 1970's. In the 1970's skateboarding was just starting to be explored. HMMM!?! This makes me think when the jewish immigrants were successful in the clothing industry is when that was just starting to be explored. This looks like a pattern. Anyways, since skateboarding was just starting to be looked at and people were just starting to expirament with new tricks and be creative anybody could make something. If the Z boys lived now they would just be skateboarders and nothing special but they live when skateboarding was just a blank peice of paper and new ideas were easy to make yours. So that is why the Z boys were successful and it shows that success is not based on personal merit but everything else surrounding you. It is actually the opposite of what society sees, when someone is successful they were smart and new what to do. Maybe they did but if they weren't where they were, when they were there, then maybe success would have never reached their grasp.

-Jason

Outside Reading Blog #3

For my outside reading book I am still reading, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. For this post I read pages 90 to 120 in the novel. In this part of the novel Mr.Gladwell starts taking personal stories and explaining them with his theories. Every page he adds on to his idea of success and he shows it in an example. He was talking about Bill Gates in the section I read and the reasons why he became such a successful computer programmer. The idea being conveyed Gladwell this time was still the 10,000 hours idea. This was the idea that to master something you have to have done it for at least 10,000 hours. I wanted to find someone who seemed successful and a master of an art and see if they did it for 10,000 hours. My neighbor, a piano instructor, talked to me and told me he plays the piano for 5 hours a day and been doing that for 15 years. He had played before that for many years but this was just for instucting. So, I did the math 365 times 15 equals 5475. then I times 5 hours times that and I get 27375. This is way past the 10000 hour mark and so obviously my neighbor must be a master at the piano. He is a very good player and I don't think I have ever seen him make a mistake but I don't believe he hasn't ever taken a vacation or a break for a day. Even then I still believe he has achieved his 10,000 hours and so he is good to go. I wanted to know how long it would take me to become a master at skateboarding and be skilled enough to be succesful. I skateboard atleast 5 hours a week and have been doing it for 5 years. I haven't had as much time as other years so 5 hours is very small compared to how much I skated a week in middle school. Still I took 365 times 5 then divided that by seven then times it by five. That brings me to about 1303 hours, meaning I have still a very long way to go before I become a master at skateboarding according to the 10,0000 hour theory. This discourages me alittle and makes me feel like I have barely made a dent in my 10,000 hours. I want to tell Gladwell that his book is to tell you how success happens and what you should try to do. Take opportunities and seize them. But he discourages you in many ways, like I am one of the younger kids in my grade like I said in my first post and that you need 10,000 hours to master something. That makes me feel like I am destined to be unsuccessful, and maybe I will get lucky. Maybe Gladwell is just trying to turn success into a very interesting thing and make you think outside the box.

-Jason

Outside Reading Blog #1

For my outside reading book I decided to read, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This story is about how success isn't based on personal merit, it's based on where, when, how, why, what you have done, are doing, and what you are going to do. For my first blog I read the first fifty pages. They talked about how when you were born effects if you are successful in school and sports. I wanted to test this on myself and see if I would and have been successful at school and sports.

For school, to be successful Gladwell said that you would be one of the oldest in your grade. This meant you would have matured faster and been able to comprehend stuff better and faster. He says that this also then puts a disadvantage for the younger kids in the grade who haven't matured yet because then they would be considered slow and be put in classes for people who need that extra bit of help. THis would put them at a disadvantage, it is not that they aren't as smart as the others who are in AP and enriched classes, it is just they haven't matured that far yet so they can't comprehend it yet. This gives the younger kids a sense of being dumb and it will stay with them through high school. I used this on myself to see if his ideas were spot on and if they were true. My mom told me that I just barely made the date for people allowed in my grade. This means that I am one of the youngest in my grade, meaning I should be in foundation classes and classes that are under the skill of the normal class. This is not the case, I am in enriched chemistry and I am in no foundation class. So obviously, Mr.Gladwell's theory isn't fullproof but I still can see it being the case many times.

Next, I wanted to see if I hadn't been successful in team sports for that same reason. If since I just barely made the cut for the age requirement of a team than maybe that is why I didn't do so well. I played soccer and I was one of the younger ones on the team just like in school. I was athletic, not clumsy and uncoordinated. I could play but maybe because I wasn't as good as the older ones I was put on the B and C teams. Also I was pretty small compared to the average soccer player that was trying out. It seems to me that Gladwell was right on this one. I did quit playing soccer cause I felt wronged being on the C team and now I feel my age contributed to it. Also, I feel that since I was smaller and not as matured as the others that were sometimes 2 years older than me that I didn't get as many opportunities that I could have recieved if I played in a year younger. So Mr.GLadwell's theories hit right on the dot with my case in soccer and why I wasn't successful in my middle school soccer years.

So for my case, Mr.Glawell is 1 of 2 and so that means he was only fifty percent right for me. I still believe his theories are smart and probably true in alot of cases but not all.

-Jason

Outside Reading Blog #2

As I continue my reading through the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, his research and ideas continue to intrigue me and make it hard for the book to be out of my sight. A new idea he has brought up is the 10,000 hour theory, where one must have done something for 10,000 hours to perfect it. His ideas of success also are eye-opening but I want to ask Mr.Gladwell some questions. So I am going to write what my letter will say to Mr.Gladwell.

Dear Mr.Gladwell,
You are an amazing writer who can make a boring subject very fascinating. Your ideas have left an impression on me but at the same time I try to find flaws in ideas. One question I have for you is, do you believe that your ideas on success are foolproof? I have heard of many "successful" people, who seem to have just gotten lucky they don't have talent they just have an incident that just puts them in the public's eye. I am sure you have had heard this question many a time and have a very well tought out answer by now. Another question for you, is do you consider yourself a successful person? If so, could explain your theory and ideas in terms of your story of success. How have you become such a successful writer? Does your birthday have to do anything with how you became successful? These are just a few of the questions that have popped up in my mind while reading you book, Outliers, which I believe is an amazing book. It is just great, but as my teachers says, "you can't have a good opinion on something unless you have a degree in Enlish". Thank you for your time to read this and hopefully you can get back to me.

Sincerely,
Jason