Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This a neat book. While masquerading as a a book about what makes people successful, it turns out to a lengthy exploration of how much privilege and luck has to do with individual success (and how little raw talent does.*)
Of course, this is a pop non-fiction book, so it's never quite clear how many of the author's conclusions generalize beyond the case studies presented. Even so, the fact that Malcom Gladwell has tricked so many people into thinking about privilege makes him a genius in my book.
* Also interesting is how controversial this idea is. I frequently mention this idea to coworkers and colleagues, and every single one of them has argued against me, in favor of raw talent being king.
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