Best book yet by Malcolm Gladwell. I've read all his books and this is definitely the best. It gives you a lot to think about success and environment and luck.
The example of korean air was also interesting. It just shows how powerful language, culture and history is.
It is not the brightest who succeed. If it were Chris Langan would be up there with Einstein. 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 opportunties and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them. For hockey and soccer players born in January, it's a better shot at making the all star team. For the Beatles, it was Hamburg. For Bill Gates the lucky break was being born at the right time and getting the gift of a computer terminal in junior high. Joe Flom and the founders of Wachtell, Lipton Rosen and Katz got multiple breaks. They were born at the right time with the right parents and the right ethnicity which allowed them to practice takeover law for 20 years before the rest of the legal world caught on. And what Korean Air did, when it finally turned its operations around was give was give its pilots the opportunity to escape the constraints of their cultural legacy.
(314page)
Our world only allowed one thirteen year old unlimited access toa time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity how many more Microsofts would we have today? to build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success - the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history - with a society that provides opportunities for all. (314)