Outliers: The Story of Success (Pt. 1)

Hello and welcome to Readers, a podcast where the real-life lessons and applications of books are talked about by a 16-year-old, me, Prithviraj Chavda. Welcome back everyone to part 1 of Outliers. This book is all about how to become a true outlier in society. What does that mean? Rising above the norm, being in that 1%, the gifted, those who work harder than everybody else, and those who ultimately rise above and who everyone knows their name. So today with me I have Neil Patel. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Yeah. So hey everyone, I'm Neil. I guess before I say anything, I would say that like Prithviraj, I'm a huge lover of books in general, especially nonfiction. And I started reading seriously when I was in high school and kept the habit as I journeyed into my profession as a trader for a prop firm based in New York City. And reading has been an important part of my life, and one of those books in particular that positively impacted me is Outliers. It's simple, practical, and it opens up one's mind, and I'm excited to talk about it with you today. So Yeah, me too.

It should be really fun. Um, so let's dive right into it. Chapter 1, The Matthew Effect. So the author Malcolm Gladwell kind of starts this chapter off with a bit of a story, um, a hockey championship in 2007 with the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants. This was in the Memorial Cup hockey championship in Canada. So these two teams, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants, were the two best in the Canadian Hockey League. And as many of you might know, hockey is extremely important to Canada. Many of kids, thousands of them, begin to play at such a young, such a young age, and only the best of the best get hand-selected to play in elite leagues. And this is actually also the way most sports pick their future star. You don't just get in because your dad might have been a really good soccer player, your mom was a really good volleyball player, etc., etc. If you have the skill, scouts will find you and you will be rewarded. That's how the system works. That's how we know it to work, right? Success in sports, hockey in this example, is based on individual merit, not on some other arbitrary skill, right? And here at this point in the paragraph, Malcolm Gladwell asks the question, or are they, right? And here he kind of goes on to explain how many of the situations in a person's life can shape their future, either allowing to become an outlier or the opposite. And an example he, he kind of uses here is a roster of the Medicine Hat Tigers. So looking at this roster while I was reading it, we find that most of them by a large amount were born in January, then February and March. This also, after further research done, this also happened to be true in the Ontario Junior Hockey League as well as actually the national team. So Malcolm Gladwell here says that this proved to him in any elite group of hockey players, any group, that is in this elite, 40% of the players are born between January and March.

So Malcolm goes on to further say that the explanation for this is pretty simple, right? And it's not magic, it's very simple. And the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey in Canada is January 1st. So that means that a kid who turns 10 on January 2nd might be playing with or against someone almost 12 months younger than them. That difference between the physical prowess of a 13-year-old and a 12-year-old is gargantuan. It's huge. The kids who do well on these teams tend to get picked up on rep squads, elite teams, and get better coaching, better teammates, and more practice. So this creates such a difference skill-wise than someone who is just unfortunately just born near the end of the year.

And he goes on to show that other sports such as baseball and European soccer also have age cutoffs just like Canadian hockey. And I don't think I need to show you the facts to show you— I don't think I need to tell you the facts to show you the birth months of all MLB stars or European soccer stars because you'll see it very similar to these hockey stars. And forget about sports for a second. Studies have also found that something as small as age has impacted affected students' test scores, college success, and more. Um, and he kind of sums up this part, Malcolm Gladwell does, and he says that it has shown that very small facts, something as small as your birth month, which you might not have thought was very important— like, why does it matter if I was born in December or January? It's only a month apart— but he says that these small facts can matter so much in the long run, and that these small changes can impact you at a massive level.

These examples and stories, they tell us that our notion of quote unquote, the best and brightest make it, is too simple to believe. So although those in the major league sports team or CEOs are much more skilled at their craft than we might be, many of them were given major opportunities and head starts, ones that they might not have earned and ones that others might not have gotten. And these opportunities and head starts, they played a major role in their future successes.

So this phenomenon that happens in many parts of the world and in many situations was coined the Matthew Effect. This was coined by sociologist Robert Merton, and it explains why the rich get the biggest tax breaks, why the best students get the best teaching, why the biggest kids get the best coaching and practice. This is what sociologists call a cumulative advantage, meaning that little advantages, small head starts, snowball into major edges over others. This also shows that outliers did not always start that way, they just started out a little bit better. However, the author also mentioned that this way of thinking about success has its consequences. He says, and I quote here, "We miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung." We make rules that frustrate achievement. We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play, and by we I mean society, in determining who makes it and who doesn't. If we wanted to, we could change and shift the rules to to make things more equal. We could let athletes play in leagues divided monthly, same with schools. So why don't we? Because we cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all. When in fact, they actually do. On this note, he ends chapter 1 and moves on to chapter 2, which he calls the 10,000-hour rule. Malcolm Gladwell starts this chapter off with talking about one of the most famous students to go to the University of Michigan, Bill Joy. Bill thought he would become a biologist or a mathematician. However, upon stumbling across the computer center at the University of Michigan, he says he was hooked for life. Apparently, he later got a job with a CS professor to program over the summer, and ended up writing AT&T's software system, which was the operating system of millions of computers. Even later in life, he also co-founded Sun Microsystems, rewrote Java, and is now referred to by some as the Edison of the internet. But, and this is a question that the author asks, how did luck or circumstances influence Bill Joy's life? He did it all on his own with his own skill, right? Switching gears a little bit, the author brings up talent. He says that achievement is talent plus preparation, or in my opinion, from the book that we read last time, talent plus grit. The only issue is that looking at examples of true outliers, talent seems to play a trivial portion and preparation or grit seems to play a much bigger role. There was a study done that is mentioned in the book where a group of musicians was tracked to find out who became a future outlier in their subject. What they found was that those who exponentially grew their practice time year by year and who worked harder than everyone else were the ones who truly became real professionals.

What really stuck out in this study was that there was no naturals. They also never found someone who worked harder than anyone else. But didn't get to the top. The conclusion of the said study was that once a musician, for example, gets into top school, the only thing that makes them stick out is how much more they work than anyone else.

And he kind of shows here that after they get into this top ranks, the only— the one and only thing that makes them stick out among everyone else who's already there is how much more they work than anyone else. And he mentions that we found the magic number, he calls it, to achieve true expertise in any given field. This is 10,000 hours. In study after study, research found that basketball players, successful writers, composers, chess players, etc., they all worked for 10,000+ hours to achieve true mastery in their skill.

And to put that in terms of years, it Roughly takes about 10 years to achieve this 10,000 hours. So this is the amount of years that most chess masters, composers, sports stars took to become masters at their own personal craft.

Going back to Bill Joy, the author mentions that he had a lot of previous accomplishments. He actually got a perfect score on the math section of the SAT and was an incredibly curious person. His parents even say from the very beginning. So he was born with natural aptitude, right? This is undeniable. However, there's more. Back in his day, computer programming was incredibly difficult. Computers were very expensive and they were very slow. However, University of Michigan was one of the first, if not the first, to utilize a new concept to program much quicker and with multiple devices.

And when this became utilized was when Bill Joy entered the University of Michigan. He was not even interested in computers at first, but when he discovered this passion, he was in one of the few places in the whole world where he could utilize his newfound passion. It turned programming from a chore from— for many to a passion for Bill Joy.

And additionally, the author also mentions that there was a little bug in the system that enabled him to have unlimited time on the computer without any stopping point. So kind of to summarize here, because Bill Joy happened to go to a school like the University of Michigan, he was able to stumble upon this incredibly rare opportunity. Because the faster system of programming was invented, it became a passion for him. Because a bug was in the system, he was able to program all he wanted. Because the university was willing to spend money to keep the computer center open all day and all night, he was able to put in this much time and hours And by the time he was presented with an opportunity to rewrite AT&T's software system, he was skilled enough to do it. So to close here, although Bill Joy was extremely gifted and smart, there's no doubt about it, he was also given an incredible opportunity to achieve all his potential. Whether you're including the faster programming, the bug, the fact that he was able to stay up all day and all night because the college was willing to keep it open all day and all night, All of this added up to him becoming to achieve that potential in computer programming.

Going further on what you just mentioned, right, he was given that incredible opportunity. Throughout the book and in this chapter in particular, it's mentioned that the Beatles, you know, one of the most popular bands, the reason they got so good was that in Germany, in strip clubs, they were able to perform and refine and develop as musicians, right? They had days and days and days of practice, which led them to that 10,000 hours. It was because in that specific time they were able to do that. And even for someone like Bill Gates, who in Seattle, it's mentioned that the Mudders Club from his high school, they funded the mainframe computer or, or in middle school, actually. So in 8th grade, he was programming. And he also had like a high school project for a friend's parent that he got more experience for. So being in the right place at the right time seems to be a recurring theme and having that opportunity to do great things. And while reading this chapter in particular, it reminded me of Kobe Bryant. So Kobe Bryant's one of the, you know, most famous basketball athletes who always talked about practice. And always waking up before everyone else and putting in the time. And one of the reasons he got to his great level of achievement was because he worked and did 10,000 iterations of his own craft. So it goes on in tandem with what this chapter is talking about.

Absolutely. I mean, he wasn't the biggest guy. He might not have been the fastest guy or anything, but he definitely practiced more than anyone. I think I actually saw this one interview of him and he had kind of said, the reason I'm so confident in what I do is not because I just think I'm the best or born the best, but because I've practiced it so much that shooting a last-second 3-pointer is something I've done so many times. You know, I've practiced that fadeaway for 10,000 hours and that's why I know that I can nail it on the spot when you're giving it to me. Here we move on to Chapter 3, The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1. So this chapter opens with a little bit about a man named Christopher Langan. His name might be familiar to some of you. Um, he was on the TV show One vs. 100 hosted by Bob Saget. He was named the smartest man in America at one point, and not inaccurately either. Apparently his IQ score was too high to be accurately measured. This man, Christopher Langan, was speaking at 6 months of age. He taught himself to read at 3 and began contemplating God's existence and asking his grandfather for answers at 5. His teacher said that he would skim through a textbook in 2 to 3 minutes and ace a test he had never even studied for. He got a perfect score on his SAT something I'm currently trying to do and have to put a bit more work into. And he got this perfect score even after falling asleep at a certain point during the test. In conclusion, he was definitely one of the most gifted people I've ever heard of.

The author tells another story about a man named Lewis Terman, who was a professor of psychology at Stanford. And just after the First World War, Lewis met this boy raised in poverty and chaos named Henry Cowell. Henry didn't, didn't attend school since 7 years of age, but was an incredible pianist. After taking an IQ test, Henry got a score of above 140, which is near genius level. So wondering how many other geniuses there were out there, Lewis put together a group of young children geniuses that came to be known as the Termites. So this group was tracked carefully throughout their whole lives.

So today, many of these ideas, right, of taking an IQ test and getting an incredibly high score or being gifted at school, many of these ideas have stuck, right? We have gifted and talented programs in school. We have SAT tests for admissions to track intelligence. And we have companies like Microsoft track IQ through various questions and tests. Actually, one thing that he mentions in this chapter was Microsoft always asks this one question of, uh, why is a manhole round, right? The manhole in a— sorry, a manhole cover, you know, in a street, why is it round? So obviously I kind of got a little curious and I searched it up myself. Um, it is able to handle compression in the earth, and an even bigger reason is that it's never able to slip into the manhole itself. Right? It's a round shape, um, and it's, it's just not able to fit, whereas a rectangular shape or an oval might be able to. Uh, but I digress. However, going back to the topic, the author says that people like Lewis Terman did not understand the true meaning of an outlier and that we continue to make the same mistake in our lives.

So talking about IQ, he says that a score of below 70 is considered mentally disabled. A score of 100 is average, and some people have IQs of 115 to 120. So, however, once somebody reaches an IQ of 120, more points don't seem to add up to real-world advantage. British psychologist Liam Hudson said, "A scientist with an adult IQ of 130 is as likely to win a Nobel Prize as is one whose IQ is 180.

So an example of this, right, is one that he gave in the beginning of the chapter— Christopher Langdon, the man who we talked about. Um, so Christopher had an IQ of around actually 195. Uh, what we know is that Einstein had one of about 150, right? But you look at both of them, I don't think anyone would say that Christopher is smarter than Einstein, right? I mean, Einstein's a genius. He's done incredible things with his life. And all we know is that they have reached the point where they're both more than smart enough. Here he kind of uses the example of the NBA, right? If you're 5'8" or 5'9", it might be really hard for you to get in, right? But if you're, you know, above 6'5" or something like that, then those couple of inches, although yes, they give you a bit of an advantage, and all of that, you'll still be able to get into the NBA without that same level of difficulty that one who's like 5'6" would have to face, right? And he shows that's kind of similar with IQ. After you reach a certain point of smartness or of skill, you— it doesn't matter so much what your score is, up or down.

Yeah, and the other examples which kind of stood out was how he mentioned that how in Harvard it might be the best, but in terms of results, other schools produce Nobel Prize winners as well. And then he goes into the University of Michigan law students, and he looked at the differences of race and saw that they could be equally successful. So you just have to be smart enough to get in. It doesn't mean you have to be at the top end, but being reasonably smart is the baseline. And one interesting part of the chapter that really stood out to me was that there was a, like, a study done where they asked a group of people about the use of bricks. And it determined creativity. So what was interesting was that the prodigies, the ones that we consider like super genius with IQ scores of 180, they just listed the uses. They weren't very creative. They were like, okay, a brick, you lay it down for a house. And then the people, other people with less IQ scores, that's when the creativity started to creep in. Someone with an average IQ score would write something like, its potential use could be something to stop someone from a robbery when you throw it at them, right? So you see a little bit of creativity in that scenario. And ultimately, I guess the point that's trying to be made is that intelligence does not lead to success. And what this reminds me of is that, you know, you kind of alluded to this, a competition and the impact of trying to get the perfect score on SAT. And I think it's always like a noble thing to always go for like the best, you know, and be the best. But you also have to kind of manage that with balancing the other parts of your life and emphasizing different things. So I feel that with regards to that, it's like intelligence as a whole, our society just definitely overrates it. And I think, uh, throughout these examples throughout the book, it's highlighted that it's not the end-all be-all.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and kind of going back to Lewis Terman and his termites, the author mentions that this was his error, right? He got too excited with IQ scores And he didn't check anything else. Apparently in making this group of these termites, or these incredibly gifted individuals, he gave many IQ tests to students in elementary school who were younger and only picked the best of the best, right? And although some of his termites grew up to publish books or thrive in businesses, he's— the author mentions that majority of them ended up with ordinary or even below average careers. In fact, there were two elementary students who did go on to be Nobel laureates, both of whom were rejected and did not have high enough IQs. So kind of sums up the last chapter that we're gonna be talking about today. And we've learned a number of things. We know now that although intelligence and IQ is important, it's not everything, right? We also know that a lot of future outliers started out with a bit more opportunity, and it was those who were able to combine both their talent and their preparation or grit to achieve the most. So next time we'll talk about more concepts that lead to the creation of a true outlier. Thank you so much everybody for listening. Thank you so much, Neil, for being here.

No, thank you. And I'm looking forward to our next episode.

Absolutely. And until next time, keep on learning, keep on changing, and keep on growing. See you next time, everybody.