A Conversation with Outlier Malcolm Gladwell

Bronx. And on the strength of that high school experience, more than 80 percent of KIPP graduates will go on to college, in many cases being the first in their family to do so. How could that be a bad bargain? Everything we have learned in Outliers says that success follows a predictable course. It is not the brightest who succeed. If it were, Chri

what truly distinguishes their histories is not their extraordinary talent but their extraordinary opportunities.

By the time he was twenty-eight, Alan had parlayed a night gig intended to pay for college into a small-town business empire.

“We have seen,” Terman concluded, with more than a touch of disappointment, “that intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated.”

Outliers make for great inspiration … but lousy role models.

He was his own boss. He was responsible for his own decisions and direction. His work was complex: it engaged his mind and imagination. And in his work, there was a relationship between effort and reward: the longer he and Regina stayed up at night sewing aprons, the more money they made the next day on the streets.