I've just finished reading the Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. While I can't say his books are very well researched, they do have pretty good stories that you can use for small talks.The following excerpt basically summarizes the whole book:
Success follows a predictable course. It is not the brightest who succeed. Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.
Since I don't have deep understanding of European culture, I can't say very much about that. But, him basing the success of Chinese Americans on the cultural legacy of Southern Chinese working in rice paddies is just off. It shows that he has tried too hard to find an example that's parallel to the rest of the stories in the book. Maybe I only saw through that because I AM Chinese American. He said Sze Yap people are the lowest-achieving Chinese American because the soil in the Sze Yap area is less fertile. Ehm... he probably doesn't know that a good chunk of HK people are descendants of Sze Yap people. And, HK people are not underachieving. And, what about the Northern Chinese? If it isn't in the cultural legacy of Northern Chinese to work hard, then why are 2 of the most prestigious Chinese universities in Beijing?
I guess that's the problem with generalizing and trying too hard to make everything support your hypotheses. Malcolm Gladwell, after all, isn't a psychologist, anthropologist, or sociologist. He clearly has a strong interest in these areas, but in the end, he's just a smart author who knows how to write books that sell.
