Posts Tagged gladwell
Outliers
Posted by David Winter in Action, Career success, Inheritance, Socio-economic factors on 12 October 2009
I have just enjoyed reading Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Outliers. It is a book about success — extraordinary success — and what is behind it. As with Gladwell’s other books, Outliers contains a treasure trove of surprising facts that make you stop in your tracks. Why are most successful ice hockey players in Canada born in January, February or March? Why did many of the most successful corporate lawyers in New York have almost identical biographies? Why were commercial planes flown by Korean pilots more likely to have accidents than those flown by Americans?
Gladwell takes on the pervasive myth that extraordinary success is purely the result of extraordinary talent in individuals. He examines the social, cultural, racial and systemic factors that hide behind the success stories.
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Choice cuts
Posted by David Winter in Action, Career choice, Decision making, Fit on 26 August 2009
Radiolab is a programme on WNYC New York Public Radio. It seeks to cover mainly scientific and philosophical topics in an entertaining and thought provoking style. Whether you like the style or not, the content is usually fascinating, and it is well worth signing up to the two-weekly podcasts.
A fairly recent show was on the subject of Choice, looking at different aspects and quirks of human decision making. Examining how people make (or fail to make) good decisions should be of interest to every career practitioner.
The news that the vast number of choices available to relatively advantaged students in the modern world is likely to lead to paralysis, indecision and stress is not necessarily news to any careers adviser. However, the ‘poster test’ effect described by Malcom Gladwell which seems to demonstrate that making people explain their choices can lead them to making bad decisions should raise a few eyebrows and make us think about our practice.
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