Outliers- Malcom Gladwell & Fountainhead Review

The day after Christmas I picked up Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It is by far Gladwell’s best book yet. The premise of the book is finding out what makes people successful. He debunks the idea that there is a group of “born genius” that are destined to be successful because of sheer intellect. He tells the story of Bill Gates and that he was getting up at 2:00 AM to sneak out of the house and walk to the University of Washington campus so that he and a friend could work on the mainframe computer from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM when no one else was using it. Computer time was hard to come by when there was no such thing as a personal computer. He had well over 10,000 hours of computer time before he had graduated from High School. He then got consulting jobs and eventually founded Microsoft. Gladwell talks about this 10,000 hour rule. Those who become really great at something have usually spent more than 10,000 hours doing that thing before they become great at it. It made me pause and think- have I spent 10,000 hours doing anything? I have probably spent 5,000 hours on several things- I think it is time to make a study of that one thing I want to be great at and give it some focus.

He also talked about how so much of our current culture and behavior is due to where our ancestors came from. Why Asian Students do better at math. They go to MANY more days per year of school than American students (180 days vs around 220 depending on the country). And also, their Asian ancestors grew rice. Rice farming takes much more time, focus and work than growing corn or other crops we grow in America. American children are not willing to work on a math problem as long as Asian kids. The key to our math problem is that we quit too soon, not that Asians have higher math IQ’s.

He also talks about the advantage children get from their parents style of parenting and why wealthy families usually end up having successful children. The bottom line seems to be how involved parents are in their child’s lives. Are they taking them to Orchestra or Science camp in the summer and requiring them to read book and learn the piano? Or are they just allowing them to “hang out” with friends and watch TV? During the summer is when the big differences occur. Wealthy and middle class children’s reading scores improve in the summer months giving them even more of an advantage and poorer children’s reading scores fall in the summer.

Gladwell also talked about IQ and that you really don’t get much of an advantage if you have an IQ above 120. If you have an IQ of 120, the difference then seems to be- have you put in your 10,000 hours? And those who are rockstar successful like the Bill Gates of the world, had an IQ of at least 120, put in their 10,000 hours and then a series of fortunate events occur to make the stars align. Some of success has to be attributed to being in the right place with the right opportunity at the right time. One thing seems certain, if we have not put in the hard work, it does not matter if the “stars align” or not. We will not be ready to benefit from the opportunity.

I enjoyed the book because it demystifies the difference between those who have become truly successful and those who have the potential to be successful but just have not figured it out yet.

Fountainhead Review


I have enjoyed revisiting the Fountain Head by Ayn Rand. As I have talked about this book with friends, it seems there are no fence sitters- people either love it or hate it. I have been a Rand fan for many years, but I intentionally wanted to look at this book more critically and try to see things from the point of view of my friends who hated the book…

First I have to say I really like Howard Roark (minus the rape thing- not sure why that had to be in the book.) He created greatness simply because he could and was not willing to compromise for the sake of popularity. If everyone had his motives we certainly would not be in the political/economic situation we are in today.

Some things about the Fountain Head I disagree with…

Humanism- The idea that the creation of man are the pinnacle of existence. Rand was an atheist and thus felt that there is no inspiration or ideals higher than the greatness created by man. Part of the point she was trying to make was that we sometimes say “what is man that thou art mindful of him” and degrade ourselves. We feel guilty for not being perfect and thus go to the other end of the spectrum and feel worthless. I think she was trying to make the point that human greatness should be celebrated instead of focusing on our weaknesses.

Superiority Complex- many people with gifted minds in Rand’s books don’t use their gifts to bless the world around them by creating better systems and things of beauty (Roark is an exception to this). Many like Dominique Francon, spend their time mocking those around them with inferior ability and less courage. There is a difference between being a light for others to see and being an intellectual snob that demean those less gifted.

I can excuse Peter Keating and those like him who are driven with the winds of public opinion and never have a on original idea or opinion of their own. I will never agree with them- but they didn’t have a spine to begin with and so I don’t expect anything of them. The characters I don’t understand are those that have a spine, have the ability, but choose to cruel instead of kind with their gifts. I can only take the virtue of selfishness so far. Our first obligation is for us to personally become what we are capable of becoming- BUT it is only the first obligation. According to Rand’s philosophy this is the only obligation we have. If everyone was anxiously engaged and equally capable I would agree- but this just is not reality. We don’t live in a vacuum and what we do affects those around us.

We have the ability to influence others for good and to the degree we can- we should.

It’s hard for me to be too critical because the beauty of great writing is that it makes you really think and question your own life. It makes you question your motives, your actions and the way you see the world. Rand’s books do all of these for me to a degree that few books do. Sometimes it seems we don’t like a book because it doesn’t support our current beliefs- I feel this is the wrong reason to dislike a book.