[Book Summary] Outliers—Malcolm Gladwell

Rating: ★★★★☆

My first audiobook is Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers. I started my audiobook journey after my mentor introduced the audiobook service to me. (You can download Libby to your phone, too. Just get a library card to start the service.)  When I was listening to Barack Obama's A Promised Land, I texted him to show him my appreciation and told him about the first book. Then he brought up Outliers which I've known already. At that moment, I decided this is my next audiobook.

Do you believe that there is the best time to be born for a career in the Canadian Ice Hockey League? Malcolm investigated the star players in the league and found one thing significant. A majority were born from January to April. Few, the rest of a year. Why? 

The cutoff date of age-class junior ice hockey is January 1st. The closer you are born to January 1st, the more mature you are (physically and mentally) when you enter the ice hockey league. If you play well at the junior level then you're more likely to be chosen for an elite program onward. Hence, you have better coaches, nutritionists, teammates, and medical resources. Eventually, the gap becomes too big to catch up for the group born later in a year.

This irreversible systematic influence happens when the following conditions are met. 1. Select. 2. Stream. 3. Differentiate. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about my own path. The cut-off time for elementary school is in September in Taiwan and my birth month is around two months before the cut-off. Compared with my classmates, I entered a classroom with lesser maturity. That was a disadvantage. Fortunately, I still came this far to land on the East Coast of the US. However, sometimes I wonder where I would have been if I could have enrolled one year later.

"Chapter 5 The Three Lessons of Joe Flom" is my favorite chapter. For the sake of the summary length, I put some explanation after the three lessons only. After all, if I tell you all, you won't be so interested in reading/listening to this book. Isn't it? 

1. The Importance of Being Jewish (not accepted by the biggest law firm but to choose a less popular specialty)
2. Demographic Luck (much less newborn babies, much less workforce)
3. The Garment Industry and Meaningful Work (shine when the time comes if you have your skills honed already)