Focus

So I am working my way through Outliers, thanks to the audio copy Josh thrust into my hands.  I have to agree it's a great read.

The overarching theme of the book seems to be that the success of very successful people is not due solely to innate talent, but to a complex web of variables.  Great success is a happy coincidence of talent and cultural/situational opportunities. For the those who are very successful, a lot of those variables will have had to line up correctly.  

But one characteristic of success seems to be diligence and the capacity to do hard work.  Gladwell mentions the 10000 hour figure, the amount of time one needs to do something in order to get very good at it (this figure also popped up in the last chapter of Digital Natives as the amount of time a twenty year old will have spent on the Internet).  10K hours is a lot of time to being doing something, like playing the cello or doing programming work.

So Gladwell is arguing that "doggedness and persistence" is a key variable in the equation of success. That makes me wonder about the prospects of the NetGens, whose trademark is quick multitask-y hopping from task to task. Indeed Gladwell points out that one of the reasons folks coming from an Asian culture do better at math is their ability to concentrate and to focus, something they derive from their culture. By contrast, many students in the West will spend only seconds over a problem and then give up, concluding it's too hard and needing additional coaching from the teacher.

It's an ancient custom for the older generation to wring its hands in worry over the younger generation. I'm not wringing the hands but I do wonder about problem solving abilities, and especially solving the really hard problems.  WIthout an ability to patiently work in a focused way on a challenging problem... I wonder if that might make us too passive, relying on a fix from without rather than on resources within.

Or maybe with the NetGens it's an ability that is developed later. But if Gladwell is correct, then that delay will mean a significant disadvantage.

Comments

[Joshua Kim]

Malcolm.....clearly the next book I'll have to thrust into your hands is Gregg Easterbrook's "The Progress Paradox"
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Progress-Paradox/Gregg-Easterbrook/e/9780812973037/?itm=1

We should worry about many things (I can give my list) - but whether or not our children will be better off then us should not be one of us. The magic of long-term compound economic growth, improvements in technology, and advances in health care, science and technology will insure that our kids will have more options, live longer lives, and be more healthy then any of us.

I think it is reasonable to worry that relative to other countries the U.S. could fall behind - as we fail to invest adequately in basic science, research, development, and primary/secondary and post-secondary education.

Gladwell's writing on the importance of "practice" should make us worry that our students are not "practicing" math and science as diligently or for as many hours as kids in Asia.

[Malcolm Brown]

Hmmm.... I think I am less optimistic than you about the future. I am not sure about future growth, think that it's more likely that there will be wars over constrained resources (masked as ideological conflicts e.g, Isalm vs the West), think that there could be horrendous terrorism attacks like a dirty a-bomb, etc etc.
And I do agree that the US, as a society, in more into consumerism and less about work, and so will be very much less competitive that other societies in the future. Plus we will be so deeply in debt as a nation that we will be in hard economic times for some period of time.

But... the Gladwell book was great. And you may have converted me to listening while on the dreadmill in the exercise room; much better than endless ESPN highlights that consist of nothing but spectacular three point shots or long home runs.