Matt

Matt

SUMMARIZE
This role will be completed with each entry and should be posted on your personal page. Your job is to prepare a brief summary of the day's reading. The summary should be a quick statement that conveys the main highlights, key points, essence of the day's reading assignment. This should be a short paragraph. This is also where you will highlight thoughts regarding connections between the reading and the essential question for your book.

(Don't Forget the Date!) The prologue and the first chapter of Outliers really sets the pace for the whole book. Malcolm Gladwell's theory, that it is not the individual that makes them great, but a series of circumstances that makes that person great. He shows a couple of examples, first in the prologue where he talks about a small Italian town, located in Pennsylvania, where all its people hate a low chance of heart disease. This was because of their earlier inhabitance in Italy. Then he goes on in chapter 1 to talk about professional sports players, and how when they were born helps them succeed in a sport, specifically hockey players. Because players who were born directly after the cut off, they are older and a little bit more athletic. But because they are that much more athletic at a younger age, they get better coaching, ultimately making them better. In Chapter 2, Gladwell focuses on the idea that a person need around at least 10,000 hours of practice until they are extremely good at something, or become an outlier. He uses examples such as Bill Joy, Bill Gates, professional musicians, and The Beatles, to prove his theory of the 10,000 hours rule. He also states that these people were given extremely fortunate conditions, where it allowed them to exceed in their goals. If the Beatles had not been given the opportunity to play in Hamburg, they probably wouldn't be one of the greatest bands of all time. Gladwell states that a person still need drive and determination, but only if they are able to succeed through opportunities provided for them. In chapter 3, Gladwell looks at the modern day genius and how successful they are. He talks about Chris Langan, a genius who's IQ is about 200. Even though Langan and many people like him are so smart, they do not have the ability to imagine, not setting them up for an extremely high success. Many of those genius's did do well in their future, but not extremely well, which most people would think they would because of their IQ. 10/5/10 In Chapter 4, Gladwell examen's other issues with the genius. He compares Chris Langan to Robert Oppenheimer, who was the man in charge on the Manhattan Project. Malcom says that because of the way Oppenheimer was raised, it allowed him to learn the skills he needed to negotiate and persuade people. This was because he was from a rich family, and often rich families teach their kids these types of skills. On the other hand, a poor family like Langan's, did not teach // practical intelligence, which was the word to describe the skill that allows you to negotiate or talk your way out of a situation. Because Chris's family was poor, they had an issue with authority did not teach their children to speak up for themselves.He concludes that an individual could never make it on their own, and the always need some sort of assistance. //**//** 12/5/10 **// In Chapter 5, the end of part 1, Gladwell looks at the life of Joseph Flom, a very successful attorney. He examens the fact that Flom was a poor Jewish boy, living in New York, and he grew up to be an amazing attorney. Gladwell says it was because of his culture and back round. The Jewish culture says that its followers should work to be as hard as they can to be successful.Flom and his other attorneys who put together the law firm made the law firm out of necessity, because Jews could not get hired at a big law firm. So Gladwell states that it is because of his Jewish heritage that he became successful. This relates to the essential question, and states that it takes both hard work, and how you were "trained" to live. In Chapter 6, there is a story about how two families that lived in Kentucky, and were rivals, and ended up killing each other. Gladwell looks into this story and comes up with the conclusion that some people, like people who live in the south, value their reputation a lot. Therefor they are more aggressive, and this is why these families ended up killing each other. They were trying to defend their reputation and honor. This directly relates to the essential question, on how far people will go to defend their reputation, and how this leads to their success. It is saying that your culture defines how you act in honoring you and your families reputation. In Chapter 7, Gladwell investigates several plane crashes, and relates them to the pilots and conditions. He figures out that the success of pilot who did not crash and failure of pilots who did crash directly relate to the pilot and copilots culture, and how they view authority, and if the speak to the flying partner with mitigation. He also says that there is a certain set of condition where plane crashes happen. Minor technical difficulty; bad weather; and a tired pilot. But when Korean Air (the main case in Airline crashes) trains its pilots to contradict authority, they then had a perfect record, with no crashes. What Gladwell is saying is that there is a certain set of condition in which things happen, and these usually directly relate to your culture or background, and this directly relates to the essential question. In Chapter 8, Gladwell discusses Chinese people, and why they are successful. He looks into mathematics, and figures out that because the Chinese numbers are easy to say and easy to add up, they can start earlier, and are therefore better at math. He also looks at the rice farmers, and why they are so dedicated to their work. The Chinese culture says that you must work hard, and that is why the Chinese are successful, because they work hard. This directly relates to the essential question, stating that a person must work hard to succeed, but this is influenced by his or her culture. In Chapter 9, the last chapter other than the Epilogue, Gladwell describes a school in New York called the KIPP school. KIPP stands for Knowledge Is Power Program. He investigates the poor intercity students who are given a chance to go to a great school. He concludes that the training these students get and the time they put into their work ultimately affects their success. He then wraps up the chapter, and the whole book by saying that "Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them." This concludes that the answer to our essential question, "Is it the individual or history who makes a person great?" It is both. An individual needs the opportunities and background to have a path to success, but they need to be able to travel down that path. **
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