In an eminently readable style, Gladwell attempts to explore the age-old debate of nature vs. nurture, though from the outset, it’s clear that in Gladwell’s opinion, there really isn’t much to debate.
Gladwell does not deny the importance of individual talent, intelligence, and hard work as relevant factors for success.
However, his fundamental thesis is that in any field, ultra-successful people achieve their status through a combination of ability, special opportunities, and the kind of arbitrary advantage that comes from being born into a particular family and culture that supports their talents.
Gladwell examines individual life stories (including his own) to confront the popularly held belief that success is based primarily on merit. His goal is to show that there are a lot more variables than we, as a society, care to admit.
The book begins with Gladwell’s discovery of an extraordinary pattern that exists in Canadian hockey, where a disproportionate number of the elite hockey players are born in the first few months of the year.
Most people believe that in Canadian hockey, as in European and South American soccer, all young players are evaluated on merit of play, and that each child has an equal shot at the top.
But Gladwell argues that since eligibility for youth hockey teams is based on a Jan. 1 deadline, children born early in the year will be measured against those born as much as 11 months later. Children born early in the year are usually going to be bigger, stronger, more mature, and most likely identified as better athletes. Those young athletes will be chosen for additional training and more ice time. Over time, the others can’t catch up.
Gladwell’s point then, is that success in a sport like hockey depends as much on the idiosyncratic selection process and the cumulative advantage of better and more training as it does on ability.
