thoughts about malcolm gladwell's Outliers

I just finished reading Gladwell's Outliers, and its a decent book, though thinking about it now, there are many questions about the validity about the points of this book, but I think one of the things that jumped out at me was that the socio-cultural conditions and just. pure. happenstance can basically account for whether people are successful or not. I especially liked the comparisons between the people of high IQ, between chris lagan and oppenheimer, and i can sort of relate to that because of the things that i've seen in life, and looking at how difficult it is for people in unprivileged positiosn to find success in lives, even though they might just be as equally gifted as everyone else.

I guess in a way, the book reveals the social conditions that make people, people-smart to schmooze with CEOs and stuff, that well, people in neighbourhoods do not have. It really is all about the social connections that people have, about how to handle high-powered people and all, and of course the hard work required... now... how am i going to put in the 100k hour rule of practise in writing?

oh well. That also means that the solutions to class divide is not just about giving people better education, it also means that people need to have better social education... thinking about regional centres of excellenc in neighbourhoods, so bright kids in the neighbourhoods can hang around and get extra lessons or guidance from some kind prof, perhaps. To get even neighbourhood kids to have the chance to work with high powered professionals and learn the social-schmoozing skills so that they don't get overwhelmed when they reach the atas places, as I was a little when i hit acjc. it really is about breaking social barriers...