Category: Notes

People who have been successful through out history (at least modern history) have been so because of the enormous effort they have put into their success, so argues Gladwell. He suggests that coming from a wealthy background and being born with a high IQ can help lay a foundation for that success but notes that there are more that many people who inherited wealth squander it and that there are more geniuses who have less than noteworthy jobs than those who do. Instead, proficiency and success usually comes after about seizing an opportunity, applying about 10,000 hours of practice and recognizing your cultural legacy. As with Gladwell’s other books, Outliers presents a narrative with a broad collection of story to illustrate his point.

Interesting tidbit: nineteenth century European farmers generally worked about 1200 hours a year. That is 200 more hours a year than hunter/gatherers (and I was always under the impression that we changed from hunter/gatherer to farmer because it was easier). Both of these pale in comparison to the rice farmers of the era who generally worked (and many still do) 3000 hours a year.

Most of the most important decisions we make, are made in a split second using “thin-slicing” decision making. These decisions are often made more correctly than we can manage if we put our minds to it. For example, doctors diagnosing heart attacks usually go through a long list of tests and procedures to determine if the attack is real. Doctors correctly diagnosed the heart attack 70%-90% of the time. Gladwell cites a study by Dr. Goldman who took hundreds of heart attack case studies into a computer program developed by physicists to build correlation models for particles. The result was a comparatively simple, and much less (needlessly) expensive, algorithm that allowed doctors to correctly diagnose heart attacks more than 95% of the time. Goldman’s process, as is the point of the book, happens with less information, much quicker and more accurately than the traditional process.

Interesting tidbit: John Gottman, a psychologist at the University of Washington, has developed a 15 minute analysis, that with a 95% accuracy, can determine if a couple will still be married in 15 years. All by “thin-slicing” the conversation.

This book seeks to capture the essence of why things stick with us in society. Why is the urban legend about a man waking up in a tub of ice with his kidney removed still floating around when we cannot barely remember yesterday’s news? Why is Southwest still profitable (for 30 plus consecutive years) while other airlines struggle? The brothers Heath identify many underlying reasons and write them in an easy, and fun, easy to follow narrative.

Interesting tidbit: In one study, people who thought analytically before being asked to donate to African relieve donated an average of $1.14 out of $5. People who thought emotionally before being asked to donate to African relieve donated an average of $2.38 out of $5.

Side trivia: you are 300 times more likely to be killed by a deer than a shark.

This book is an impressive collection of insights and studies gleaned by a consultant and professor over a long, long time. Most of the studies use some sort technological interaction to explore a human relational question (computers are a lot easier to control that people). For example, one studied compared how well happy or sad people worked with computers that were happy or sad (happy people prefer working with the happy computers while sad people prefer working with sad computers). Much like “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr and “Switch” by Chip and Dan Heath, this books is a good read and then good again for reference because there are so many good studies presented.

Interesting tidbit: negative experiences cause “retroactive interference” to our memories; we have a hard time remembering what happened immediately before the bad experience. After the negative experience, however, our memories are increased beyond normal clarity. This is why often survivors of a bad accident cannot remember what caused it but can tell you, in great detail, everything that happened immediately after it.

Reading notes

• Evaluation is a natural state of the human brain
  • We are wired to constantly evaluate other
  • We interpret most things we are told as judgement
• We typically perceive neutral to be a negative
  • Think NPS, being promoted is a success everything else is a degree of failure
• People generally get joy from flattery even when they know it is not genuine
• We tend to disregard criticism that we do not agree with, but still obsess over it for days
• Ideally, you can present a few negative items then a long list of positive items so they end up feeling good and remembering well
• Effective feedback is accepted feedback, not necessarily accurate feedback.
• How to criticize effectively:
  • When criticized, we enter an action oriented state: fight, flight, or, ideally, guidance to improve.
  • Give specific details rather than broad advice
  • Break the bad news, let them ask some questions, then take a short break before talking again; This will let them gather their thoughts
• Telling someone something should be easy for them tends to cheapen their experience
• Praise for taking on challenges and addressing criticism helps foster a growth mindset
• Sharing an evaluation of someone tilts everyone else’s perception in the same direction, even if they know you are biased
• Negativity is perceived as smart, profound, and genuine where positivity is seen as superficial

As things begin building, they come to a point where a small extra effort pushes it over the brink. He uses a series of examples to show how three things come together to create a tipping point, for example: Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople. The Connectors keep in contact with a broad variety of people. They do not necessarily know much nor are they really good at convincing people to do things, but they can connect a people from very different walks of life. The Mavens stockpile information. Where the Connector works to stay in contact with people, the Mavens gather information so they can share it with other people. Salespeople do what the Mavens cannot do, convince people. When things reach the tipping point, these three types of people get together. The Connectors are able to connect a Maven (who knows stuff) with Salespeople (who can convince people to ‘buy’ the Mavens ‘product’, whatever it be) and things can take off.

Interesting tidbit: William Dawes rode on the same mission as Paul Revere, but because he was not a good Connector, Dawes was only able to arouse the two individuals he was assigned to where Revere was able to awaken the whole countryside.