The E-Entrepreneur

I recently reading the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. A good read, lots of interesting stuff. Gladwell defines an outlier as a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample. Essentially he talks about how successful people aren’t necessarily the smartest ones. You can have a high IQ, but becoming successful also depends on when you were born, your culture, your family origin, your childhood experiences and events that happen during your lifetime. Examples include Bill Gates, lawyers in Manhattan and hockey players.

He also explores other interesting facts, such as why Asians are in general better at math than Caucasians? Well the answer lies within the counting system in English vs in Chinese/Japanese/Korean. In the Asian languages, you can say all the numbers by just knowing how to count from one to ten. In English, however, not only do you need to know how to count from one to ten, but you need to know eleven, twelve, …. , thirty…, etc. You get the idea, many numbers cannot be constructed using the basic ten numbers. Meanwhile, in Chinese, the number eleven is read as “ten-one”. Hence the counting system is much more complex in English. So for little kids Asian children have a easier time learning to count and grasp the numbering system than the Caucasian counterparts. With such advantage, Asian children are able to understand math from an earlier age which allows them to accelerate in math.

Interesting huh? Take a look at this one: there is a correlation between culture and flight accidents (surprising…. and you’re going to be more careful with deciding which airline you fly with next time you book your holiday vacation). I won’t spill any more beans, but if this kind of stuff piques your curiosity, then this book is for you.

In the meantime, I’m on to his other book: The Tipping Point.