Outliers

I've been my usual self lately, building up my to-do list by tasks that I want to do either because I enjoy them or because they simply need to be done. I have this tendency to load myself with work to see how much I can handle before I collapse under the weight of it all. Sort of like the physics experiments we used to do, where we would measure the tensile strength of elastic materials which would follow Hooke's Law, where deformation is proportional to the amount of stress applied.

Ok, that was too much science used to explain my unnatural tendencies. Apologies. The point is, in the midst of all this work load, this blog goes neglected.

Had my exams recently, but even during that time I was sneaking online to download e-books off the internet so that as soon as my papers end, I can start reading. While it's really hard for me to read a book consistently during my semester, that too on the computer, there was this one book that just had me going. I managed to complete the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell last week. Needless to say, it was a wonderful book which made me see things from a completely different point of view. It captured my interest right at the beginning and was insightful throughout.

Photo courtesy: Google

You know how we're told stories of successful people, that they were so smart they managed to do this, so brilliant that they decided to do that? Well, the book throws it all aside and claims that these people were successful not because of their own accord but just because they happened to be in the right place at the right time. They happened to be born on a particular date which was favorable to them, they happened to live in the vicinity of great schools, they happened to be born into families that were well-off and educated, they happened to belong to civilizations that had specific characteristics. All of these were chance events, out of human control. Makes you believe in a Higher Being doesn't it? Makes you humble and grateful for where you are today and how you got here.