Outliers: The story of success by Malcolm Gladwell

I don't even know where to begin, how to describe just how enlightening this is. I have to say there wasn't a whole lot for me to take to improve my life at this point. I am too old and job enslaved to enact the 10,000 hour rule (explain in a sec). But it will help me with Sid. For one, I will make sure I send him to school the year he will be oldest in his class. 9 months can make a huge developmental difference at a young age and apparently teachers aren't taking this difference into consideration when they are choosing the talented students to poor their attention into and which "slower" ones to ignore and make feel stupid. What results is that over the years it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy based on an originally false pretense. The 10,000 hour rule says that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. The thing is, who has 10,000 hours? No one with a job that's for sure. I intend to make damn sure Sid does not have to work as a teenager and make sure we find out what he's good at and likes and can get a fair shot at opportunities to work his ass off. Yes, success require astronomical amounts of effort, concentration, and hard work. But it's not as simple as that. A lot of hard work is the result of an opportunity to do that work, like things that require rink time, access to certain equipment and technology, coaching, etc. Anyway, what it all boils down to is that I've always said that all hard work is not rewarded equally and this book is the proof. I haven't learned this much truly original (new to me) stuff from a book in long time. He talks about cultural legacy and how where we are from dictates more of our behavior than we know. I just wish there was a way to look up my own cultural heritage and read about what it means for me. Anyway, I take issue with people who would argue that if one is not a success in life then the ONLY thing they were missing was work ethic. Work ethic is a must, but having it doesn't mean one will be a success. This book is a must for those people.