Chunk #2 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell, In the second hundred pages of his book Outliers continued his explanation of Success. He started by comparing Robert Oppenheimer to Chris Langan claiming that Robert Oppenheimer had Practical Intelligence and Chris Langan lacked it because Oppenheimer was Rich and Langan was poor also Langan never learned the skills from his parents to effectively communicate with adults without any intimidation. Malcolm Gladwell is saying that Oppenheimer was more successful and respected than Langan because of his social status not because Oppenheimer was smarter. He concluded that after the termites experiment, The "failures" were from poor families and the true success stories were from rich families. He continued by introducing Joe Flom a Successful lawyer and explained to his audience that because Joe Flom was Jewish and because he was a poor immigrant he was able to become a successful lawyer because he learned a valuable skill. Because of the ADVANTAGE of being a Jewish Immigrant. He explained that in Order to be a successful lawyer you need to be born at certain time which is the 1930s and descendants of a particular race which is Jewish in order to be successful. Gladwell continue to argue that our ancestors have a big impact on we react to brewing issues by giving examples of the southerners and how quickly they are to show what is known as the culture of honor. He concluded by showing his audience how planes crash, he claims that it is the result of non communication. Both his audience and purpose are unchanged from the first one hundred pages of the book.

Clarification Question? Why is Robert Oppenheimer more successful than Chris Langan?

Application Question? What do you think is the advantage for our generation?