While practice may not make perfect, significant practice may open doors which otherwise might not have opened. Much of what Gladwell wrote was about the creation of opportunity.
Those interested in a quick synopsis of Outliers may wish to read the author interview at the back of the book and also the final chapter. One sees:
- parents who ensured their Jamaican daughters studied well,
- parental awareness of a new all-island merit scholarship,
- daughters earning meritorious opportunity to study in London,
- one daughter's marriage and settling in Canada,
- that grown daughter and her husband raising three sons, including Malcolm.
The principle of sacrifice/practice is sound and builds character. Which is not to say all of his ideas pass muster:
- Chronological age is used as a proxy for "maturity": Then a recommendation is made that children might be grouped in schools by narrower age bands.
- There may even be some cherry-picked data illustrating a concept or two in his book (such as birth month advantage in sports, using a limited sample of data).
Still Gladwell gives us "big ideas" to consider.
