Clinical Chemistry’s NIH Book Club Corner, NIH Biomedical Computing Interest Group Book Club Review of Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Jim DeLeo, Alan T. Remaley, G. William Moore, and Gerald L. McLaughlin1

Abstract

This book explores what makes people unusually successful with regard to health, wealth, and social status. Author Malcolm Gladwell examines such “outliers” from novel and unexpected perspectives. He discusses the importance of persistence and the illusion of meritocracy, and he provides examples of how hidden and sometimes arbitrary advantages accrue to individuals who excel in their area of expertise. He discusses the limitations of IQ testing and informs us that beyond a certain IQ threshold higher values don’t seem to matter with regard to success. He provides an example of two highly intelligent subjects: one poor and unsuccessful, the other affluent and famous. Only the affluent subject’s family successfully cultivated assertiveness and intellectual ability in the child. Gladwell attributes the story of a successful Manhattan attorney to his Jewish ethnicity, early rejection by establishment law firms, a demographic shortage of smart college-age men in the 1940s, and a family heritage of skilled, meaningful work in the garment industry. He describes multigenerational family feuds in Kentucky as the legacy of animal-herding cultures that favor honor and courage, even over life. The ethnic theory that culture underlies observed risks such as plane crashes is plausibly supported by close descriptions of Korean and Colombia plane crashes. Higher culture-associated respect for authority seems reversible, because assertiveness training significantly improves global air safety. Innovative explanations of Asian success in mathematics and commerce are offered, based on centuries of cultures praising the steady, careful, hard work through the year that is necessary for rice farming; a more logical counting system; and a claim that such diligence and persistence is a key to success in mathematics. A South Bronx experimental public school, the KIPP Academy, …