Just finished this book today while stranded in a tunnel on a delayed outbound Red-Line T(rain) ride to Davis. (I'm glaring at YOU MBTA)! I felt a small smug feeling when I found out - in the last chapter - that Gladwell is of Jamaican decent.
Otherwise the book just left me with a feeling of being bombarded with interesting bits of new information, that were arranged in just the perfect way for me to be unable to draw any kind of logical conclusion. What was the point Gladwell? Was it aimed at policy makers; encouraging them to generate more opportunity? Was it aimed at the ordinary man; giving them a way to blame lack of opportunity for a lack of success? Or was it supposed to generate a kind of fatalism? You could be a genius that worked from dawn 'till dusk... Those things are necessary but not sufficient for success... you can still fail, chances are, you will fail. People will still stand in your way, things won't work out, you will be stuck in the drudgery of the everyday... unless you are granted the random opportunity given by luck to those of "good" birth, "good" means, and "good" skin colour.
What am I supposed to do now Gladwell? No answer? Thanks for nothing. Wow, I am a ray of sunshine today.
1 comment:
meh, perhaps you're expecting a little much.
from what you told me, the book is not about mere success, but super-success.
yeah, maybe you can be held back from absolute greatness and phenomenal wealth by some of these luck-of-the-draw elements... but it's not like a smart person who works hard can't get a quarter mil a year unless Jah himself come down and intervene.
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