Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

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Canadian journalist and seven-time New York Times bestselling author, Malcolm Gladwell, illustrates opportunities and their effects in his non-fiction book, Outliers (2008) while arguing that success is not purely dependent on individual ability and talent but rather the community, cultural background, and opportunities presented to individuals at various stages in life. He supports this idea by employing strategies including, but not limited to, logical appeals taking form as stats in the form of Canadian hockey players, along with.The purpose and intention behind Gladwells choices is to demonstrate the belief and fact that opportunities and advantages, whether known and acknowledged or not, have a major role as a determining factor in the …show more content…
Gladwell, in his chapter “The 10,000 Hour Rule” illustrates just how important and advantageous practice, and the opportunities that enable individuals to do so, in combination with natural talent, are in the quest to succeed in varying aspects of life. In “The 10,000 Hour Rule” logical appeals are made throughout to emphasize and establish the fact that practice and opportunities are a major factor, whether people choose to acknowledge it or not. This chapter goes into depth on the beliefs of Gladwell, that practice, produced by opportunities, is what makes a successful individual, not just talent. Gladwell states that “the most successful musicians have reached, at least, ten thousand hours” and those musicians work “much harder” than those who do not devote their time to practicing (39). Specifically, Gladwell uses Bill Gates, a world renowned figure in the tech community and co-founder and CEO of Microsoft, to demonstrate his