No thesis yet, but some random sleep deprived mumblings:

I'm convinced the Tiger book has had a big affect on our recent school placement advocacy. The timing and media saturation are really frustrating. You just can't argue with Terry Gross...

I saw the Race to Nowhere recently. I was struck how both the Race to Nowhere and Outliers used Bill Gates as an example to prove their POV - but Outliers stressed how hard Bill Gates worked as a student and Race to Nowhere talked about him not graduating from college. It seemed like cross purposes. I felt kind of sorry for the poor guy.

If I have a point, it might be that people take out of that stuff what they want to think. Most of the people I know who (not on this board) talk about Outliers as if its all about why red shirting your kids is a really good idea. What I got out of Outliers was that our famly's commitment to Suzuki music education was a really good thing for my child because it is hard for her and she is supposed to practice a little every day.

Warning: sleep deprived