To Become An Outlier Saturday, December 5, 2009

This is an unusual book selection for parenting topic. This is a book about story of success, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

A very interesting read about some phenomenons that he and the like minded group of people observed, and their studies on people. Rather than arguing whether these stories are coated just to make this book sellable, we can pick up tips just by putting on our common sense hat when we read.

There are simply too much things to learn from this book, a few notable points:

1. Chance/Opportunity
You ought to be at the right place and right time, and be also prepared to seize the opportunity for success. By merely enjoying a little bit headstart compare to your peers, this could lead to huge success in later stage compare to them. Chinese proverbs mention “a small difference in mille leads to big difference in miles”. Example, a kid who was born in Jan and has a taller body built when he reached 10 years old is more likely to be shortlisted among his classmates (who were born later of the year) to join basketball team. And because he is shortlisted, he has more opportunities to practice, coached by best coach and access to better facilities. In short few years later, this kid appears to be so much talented compare to his peers who unfortunately grow up slightly slower than him. Is he so talented or merely enjoy a little bit headstart?

2. Work hard, really hard
And be also prepared to seize the opportunity for success. “Prepared” is a nice word if you read this in the comfort of your couch. If only you knew The Beatles performed live 7 days a week, 8 hours a day, for nearly 1200 times before they found themselves in the limelight. Be prepared and be ready before the lucky star strike you, else you might just as well make an empty wish against the meteor.

3. Mitigate – Poor form of communication
Simple thing causes simple accident, high tech thing causes high tech accident? Not always true. Most of the air crashes were caused by a series of small insignificant events which weren't harmful at all if it happened isolated. And most of the air crashes were caused by miscommunication. Not like 1 party talk in technical language that you can’t comprehend, it is too scary to know that “mitigate” brought down flights and caused deaths. So speak up, but with respect to the authority.

4. Culture of Honor
Habitant on highland are more likely to get into fight, compare to those live in the valley. In the valley, mainly are those farmers. And farmers work in a community, harmony and peace are their values. But for those live in the highland, those are the hunters. They live by themselves, their survival depends on their skill to hunt. They must put up a show so that other know their fame and will not invade their territories. Just because of this Culture of Honor, they must stand up and make their voices heard. Is this necessary? Don't live blindly in the lack of self confidence, and use your loudness to cover this weakness and create unnecessary noise.

5. Want to be good in Maths, study it in Chinese language
For years, I wonder what makes Chinese school children good in Maths compare to other, relatively. Chinese student learns to count 1-100 by simply learn 1-10 and then repeat it over again, as 11 means 10 + 1 and 22 means (2 10 1). However in English language, "eleven" is a word by itself, "thirty, forty, fifty" somewhat sounds like "three, four, five" and yet they are different. By the time English kid learn to 100, Chinese kids most likely already working out their arithmetic. You get 2 kids to recite 1 to 100 one in Chinese and another in English, obviously the English kid will take slightly longer time. Not because he is not talented, but the syllabus just simply more than Chinese. Worst still, you get a Malay kid to recite 1 to 100, imagine the kid says "sem-bi-lan pu-luh sem-bi-lan", Chinese kid say - Jiu Shi Jiu, English kid says - Nin-ty Nine. It is not like the kids are different in their IQ, but the way they learn the basic thing is different and later on lead to great differences when comes to challenging Maths question.

Just my thoughts.
So what should we do next? Education is important, children education is even more important, the right children education is critical. Education doesn't just refer to reading academic books, but the cultural values, the principle values that we instill in the kids from young age.