(Note: this post does not reflect my personal opinions 100%. I’m merely making a brief review of the contents of the book)

“If you work hard enough, nothing is impossible.” My teacher told me once. On the other hand, when we hear of bright students scoring top marks in exams, my friends would say, “Ah, he/she must be very clever!” Which makes me wonder–what is it that determines a person’s success? Is it bone-breaking, grueling work? Is it innate intelligence and high IQ? Is it the right attitude and the ‘people skills’? Or is it background, affluence and opportunity?

According to Malcom Gladwell‘s ‘Outliers’, success is the combination of these various factors.

In physics, especially in graph sketching, an outlier is a point that does not lay on the best-fit line. (And it’s a frustrating time for us science students!) But Gladwell’s ‘Outlier’ simply means–a person who is very successful in his/her field, more so than the average population.

From hockey players to musicians, Gladwell outlines a factor that is essential to their success–practice. It takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice, (which is about 10 years) to shape a person’s ability to a professional level. A study, dividing students at a music academy into three categories based on talent, showed that the best students were the ones who had accumulated 10,000 hours of practice since age five–increasing their hours per week as they grew older. On the other hand, the poorer students had merely accumulated 4000 hours of practice.

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