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Success Not Just a Matter of Talent

Posted by Soulskill on from the ninety-nine-percent-something-something dept.

NinjaCoder writes "The Guardian has an interesting article based on a new book (Outliers: The Story Of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell) which examines some persons of interest to computer technology (Bill Joy, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, amongst others). It examines reasons for their successes and strongly suggests a link between practice (10,000 hours by age 20 being the magic milestone) and luck. This maybe an obvious truism, but the article does give interesting anecdotes on how their personal circumstances led to today's technological landscape. It points out that many of the luminaries of the current tech industry were born around 1955, and thus able to take advantage of the emerging technologies.

6 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Another Gladwell masterpiece! by stinkbomb · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This Gladwell character has quite the literary scam going:
    1. Take an obvious and ancient truism.
    2. Write 200-300 pages of anecdotes related to it.
    3. Profit!

    I heard his next book is going to be an analysis of the power of hand-washing to prevent disease!

  2. insightful revelation by spune · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who would have guessed that individual circumstances play an important role in success? It certainly had never occurred to me that who you know matters more than what you know.

  3. Success is being in the right place at the right t by melted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Success is being in the right place at the right time. That's 50% of it. The remaining 50% are 30% hard work and 20% talent. The point being, unless you're in the right place at the right time and you see the opportunity, your hard work and talent are unlikely to pay off.

  4. Rich Parents by ISoldat53 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It doesn't hurt to have very well-to-do parents.

    1. Re:Rich Parents by Animats · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesn't hurt to have very well-to-do parents.

      It does help. It knocks years off the time it takes to get to the point that you have enough assets to do something.

      In the US, having rich parents gives more of an edge than it did fifty years ago. Few kids used to attend private schools, and if they did, they were probably Catholic. Now, there's a whole system of high-end schools and activities for rich kids. There's heavy institutional support for getting into the right college. Fifty years ago, there were SATs, but nobody took special SAT preparation courses. This is reflected in the rising correlation between the parents income and the child's income.

  5. Re:Born Lucky by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple. -Barry Switzer