My first Malcom Gladwell book, comes heavily recommended. In the age of Instagram, it’s easy to feel that our lives aren’t as great as others. This book examines many societal phenomena associated with “success.”

Outliers popularised the idea it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an “expert” in an area. The “10,000-hour rule”, has been debunked multiple since. Still, I feel like the points made in the book stand. The story starts with embodiments of wealth like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Notes

A large contributing factor to success is being at the right place at the right time. The full extent of what’s available to the people you’re comparing with isn’t known to you. This can take so many forms, not just money. It’s the intellectual environment, opportunities, financial cushion, networking, etc.

The part about airplane crashes was so convoluted, I forgot it one minute after reading it.