Henry Wadworth Longfellow, and American poet from the 1800s, said, “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.” This concept I explained by, Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. He devotes chapters three and four to discussing “The Trouble with Geniuses.” The theory he outlines in this section of the book discusses how much of a factor high intelligent quotient is in determining success, versus how important upbringing is. He examines geniuses, who are commonly considered “the true outliers,” and their successes. Gladwell wrote these chapters with the purpose of persuading his target audience, and wrote with them in mind. He contextualizes his arguments for the readers …show more content…
On the one hand, he is writing this section of his book for anyone interested in reading it. He would like everyone to know about his ideas. However, one could say he also had more specific audiences is mind. For one, he could be targeting people of average intelligence who feel they cannot succeed without incredible IQ. His arguments tell them that upbringing matters more than genius. He could also be directing these ideas to admissions boards for schools. Gladwell explains in these chapters that “practical intelligence” matters significantly more than purely high IQ numbers. He recommends that schools give a divergence test, rather than just a convergence test, like a typical IQ test. The divergence test looks at creativity and ability to think outside the box. These are skills that breed success more than IQ. Gladwell discusses this as the reason Nobel Prize winners do not all come from top colleges. They need to be “smart enough,” but once they have that, they need imagination to be able to win the Nobel Prize. Harvard is only testing intelligence, not creativity, and this is why not all winners come from there. Gladwell’s discussion of this topic in his book, including giving the idea of the divergence test to college admission boards, demonstrates that he is targeting them in his audience. Therefore, one can see that Gladwell wrote these chapters to persuade his …show more content…
He uses pronouns such as “you,” “we,” and “us” in his chapter to include and address the reader. For example, he says “What I told you at the beginning of this chapter about the extraordinary intelligence of Chris Langan, in other words, is of little use if we want to understand his chances of being a success in the world” (Gladwell 90). He addresses the reader personally, seemingly including them in the process. Gladwell also uses phrases like “What does the story of Chris Langan tell us?” (Gladwell 96). This fosters a feeling that the reader is in the discovery along with Gladwell. This is how he addresses is audience all throughout the book, bringing them along the journey with him. Hence, it is seen that Gladwell wrote with his audience in
Over the years, there has been an ongoing debate about “street smarts” and “book smarts” throughout the world. Many people side with either or for their own personal reasons. Although “street smarts” has developed a poor reputation which pushes people to neglect the positive aspects of this particular way of learning. In the article, “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff evaluates the structure schools use to teach literature. He explains that intellect is not only found in the academic form of thinking.
He believes people are successful because of their families and circumstances while growing up. I understand how he would have formed this conjecture, but I disagree with his
He finds the many problems with these ideas: that plagiarism is less okay in writing than other mediums, that it’s outright stealing – implying that the original owner no longer has it – that all ideas should be completely original and not derived from something, and how disconnected all the standards of copyright are from eh creative process. After his criticism Gladwell recognizes that the sentences Lavery
Intelligence is what gets us by everyday; it gets us jobs and helps to provide for ourselves and others. I'm not saying you need to be the smartest person ever to be successful, but you at least have to be smart enough. Gladwell mentions that "Langan’s IQ is 30 percent higher than Einstein’s. But that doesn’t mean Langan is 30 percent smarter than Einstein. That’s ridiculous.
The author Gladwell helped the reader to reach his message by providing characters with common experiences and turn them into positive experiences. He used characters to help the reader to find hidden messages. Gladwell was trying to make hidden messages easy to locate as a person reads deeper in the chapters within the book, he made this clear since the beginning of his book. The importance of the book is demonstrates how a legacy that includes culture can have failure and can be turned around into success just by an off chance (Locklear, 2016). Gladwell gives the reader a sense of empowerment showing the public to feel self-righteous because they too can become a famous song writer or athlete if they to put in their 10,000 hours of dedicated work to what they love to do (Locklear,
“Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff starts off with an older argument between being book smart and street smart. Throughout the reading, Graff uses his own life experiences to critique the education system today. Points made focus on the idea of overlooking the intellectual potential of those who come across as being, “street smart”. Different authors cited in the reading to show how to accept another’s different intellectual. However, we realize that people who come across as being intellectual weren’t always labeled as that.
In fact, he states that he "tried to recreate an oral storytelling voice and craft the story in terms of a performance for a general audience" (King, 22). He does this to not only appeal to all audiences but also to get the reader involved, engaging them personally in the story much like a conversation, with the intent of
The reading "Hidden Intellectualism" by Gerald Graff reflects views on being "street smart" and "book smart." He explains that society tends to associate people who are intelligent on solely being "book smart" and performing well in academics, rather than being street smart. He goes on to further explain that students perhaps can be intelligent on topics that interest them. Graff opens up the reading by giving his own personal experience on feeling torn between trying to prove that he was smart yet fearing that he was overdoing it. He was trying to prove that he learned just as much about the real world by reading his sports books and magazines as he would have if he had read the classic works of literature like most students in school.
Pod Cast Malcom Gladwell is author of Outliers The story of success. Gladwell speaks on success how circumstances may out come your success but that may not be that case. Tony Robbins a motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist. Robbins doesn’t see circumstances as a determined factor.
Gladwell 's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy are what really drive them to the pinnacle of success. The first aspect that Gladwell introduces to support his argument is the importance of opportunity. One example that he talks about is “The Matthew Effect”. “The Matthew Effect” is shown through the Medicine Hat Tigers elite hockey team of Canada; if one was to look at the roster, which includes their birth dates, they would find something quite peculiar.
Having an opportunity of practical intelligence is important for achieving success because people can change the situation to their desire by using practical intelligence. Even though asserting oneself is also an important requirement to succeed by appealing with confidence, better results of asserting yourself are guaranteed through capability of practical intelligence which is the ability to knows what, when, and how to say. In chapter 4 of Outliers, practical intelligence is mentioned as a key to success. For example, there is a case of Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer in outliers that shows the importance of practical intelligence. Even though they both have high IQ, Robert Oppenheimer succeed, but Chris Langan does not.
Malcolm Gladwell insists that IQ is not the determining factor in one’s ability to achieve success because he believes that opportunity and chance play critical roles in one’s journey to achieve success. In Outliers, Gladwell includes Christopher Langan story growing up. Langan has an IQ of one ninety-five, “The average person has an IQ of one hundred… Einstein one fifty” (Gladwell 70). Langan is considered “the smartest man in America” and sometimes “the smartest man in the world”.
It engages readers through the entire novel by reading events through the eyes and minds of four separate
This first sentence in the passage immediately makes the reader wonder about the setting and what’s going on. In other words, the author W.W. Jacobs grabs the reader’s attention by making the readers think and be curious about
Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, is an informational book regarding the intricacies of success and how it comes to fruition in individuals. Outliers has served to teach students the means of being successful and the importance of seizing opportunities as they come. Personally, Outliers has changed my views of success in numerous ways. Before reading said book, I had always assumed people who were naturally talented or had specific privileges were the only ones who could get far. However, Gladwell’s writing has informed me that anyone, if they are prepared to work hard, can reach their goals.