Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion 'Outliers', anyone reading it??

This is just a great discussion, I am enjoying the latest comments!
Just to respond to a few that I didn't get a chance to over the last couple of days...

From Austin:
"Gladwell looks at many ethnic groups - not just Rice Paddy farming - for examples - and it not ethnicity - but the culture that occupation brings."

True, but also Gladwell got very very specific about how very fussy rice farming is - the work ethic is one part of the equation but he was also talking about the very difficult task of getting the slope of the bed just right, maintaining the water level, spacing the plants, fertilizing, etc. It almost sounds like a bit of engineering, agriculture, chemistry, and biology rolled into one - maybe other areas of farming require these levels of precise manipulation, but he makes it sound pretty unusual. I have never been a farmer, so I wouldn't know for sure.

Jool -
There is a rags-to-riches theme in the book, to be sure, but there are also stories of folks like Robert Oppenheimer and Bill Gates - mid to upper class kids and the opportunities they've found/had the presence of mind to seize.

Just in general, to dispel maybe a bit of the idea that he's just assuming asians are better at math:
He goes to some length to discuss the testing which has repeatedly shown the student populations of various asian countries as well-ahead of western countries in areas of science and math - it is not simply a stereotype or assumption that they are better, it appears to be a testable trend. He talks about some hypotheses to explain this trend, but also asserts that it makes no sense that given the right circumstances western students could do just as well!

'Neato and kcab - yes! actually even in this book, in the epilogue which Austin mentioned, he has a discussion about race and racism whether folks are in the minority or the majority it doesn't guarantee a non-racist outlook. He discusses his own mother's racism.
(I read that as just the last chapter of the book, but now I see it is noted as an epilogue.)

got to run...