Its been so long since I wrote about any book at all, cause its been so long too since I finished a real book, I think the last one was the 8th Habit by Stephen R Covey and because I did not blog or write anything about it, I forgot about what it said already. But I think its something on vision and leadership. About finding your voice (which is something like your calling) and helping others find their voice.

and talked about bad habits like complaining that we should stop.

and the reason I managed to finish that book was the same reason I managed to finish outliers too.

its because I ‘read’ it in the Audiobook format. First book was the 8th habit on my PSP, then I also ‘read’ some language related book (Primsleur)

Now I have my iPhone, so all my audio files are moved there and I can listen to them on the way to office. Btw my workplace provides shuttle from MRT (JE, CCK, Boon Lay) so once I got to the bus, if I can’t sleep I would ‘read’

the point is, I cannot read a real book on a moving vehicle, thus you would never see me studying on the bus, mrt, car etc unless i am really desperate. I also do not like to listen using speakers, I cant make out the words well. Therefore, since I have a personal transportation up to this point, I seldom listen to anything too.

oh well back to the book.

I have read the other book by Malcolm Gladwell, I think its the Blink book, the power of thinking without thinking and I forgot about the content also.

therefore, I need to write it down somewhere from now on, maybe I will also write something on other more fictional based works too.

The bad thing about me, I feel guilty about putting down a book that I only read halfway. For example, now I am reading a continuation of the Bourne’s trilogy by Robert Ludlum, except that he has since passed away and this latest Bourne book was written by an Eric. The story is still like a typical Bourne, high speed chase and secrecy, cock-up government agencies and corrupt practices etc. The fact that it was not written by the original author bothers me and makes me feel like abandoning the book. However, the story is quite interesting and I should not judge a book by its author?

This kind of competing ideas in my mind made the progress of the book excruciatingly slow. This book, I have it in e-book format, not the usual PDF kind I used to read on my PSP, but the real e-book format on the iPhone.

Then I have 2 other real books I am also reading, one novel by Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholics ABROAD and another one Sea of Poppies by Amitar Ghosh.

The chick-lit book is in my bag for those times i need to wait for something but do not feel like reading my news/mail/book on the iphone, which as u can guess its quite rare. Plus I feel reading chick lit is a waste of time though I enjoy it, again my competing minds fighting.

the other book has storylines that is difficult to imagine and thus progress is slow too, its supposedly my bedtime reading book so its located near the bed. well since its difficult to read, it leave me frustrated sometimes so now I am like abandoning it.

ok enough talk on other things

back on the book I am trying to review, well not really review, more like just blabber about it

SPOILERS AHEAD———————————————————————-

the book talked about outliers as a form of deviance, outside the statistics and in a good way, these outliers are successful in their way.

as I listened to the book instead of read it, I go through it faster and spelling of names might be inaccurate

well there are a few points

1> there is a right time and right place to be successful

first chapter talked bout Hockey players, is that in most sports which had a youth program in some sort, more people who excelled seemed to be born near the cut off date. which the book gave the example of Canadian hockey players who was recruited since young

the ones born in first quarter of the year dominates almost 70% of the all star team.

This one should be kept in mind when you are having kids perhaps, cause now its too late for urself, thus for education system like singapore where in primary school you are already streamed here and there perhaps the extra months make a difference.

I personally do not believe in it, cause when I was young, I was 1 year younger than most of my classmates and still did well in school, then again the Indonesian education system does not stream at all, so we are all trained the same way, perhaps only the schools standard matters

2> 10,000 hours of practice is needed to master something and you need opportunities and help to get through the hours

well this is related to the first point, if you r born at the right time, then probably you will get into better programs which is usually more rigorous and give u more chance to practice. Beatles were practicing close to this amount in performance time by going to hamburg for gigs at the red light district and little Bill Gates was programming non stop because his parents afford to send him to a good school which had time share access to computers and not like the punch card way of programming which kills.

Mozart too had to have his 10,000 hours

3> Being a GENIUS does not amount to success, you only need to be smart enough

4> Your parents/upbringing plays a role in your success

5> Your heritage too, plays a role

well maybe at this point you get the idea, the book is inspiring and easy to follow

I myself is very afraid of the future, not sure if I wanna do graduate studies, go to work, become an entrepreneur, get married, have kids, emigrate, live simply in kampong, etc etc

Many things to consider

and at the same time worried about my grades, my job opportunities, money matters

anyway, its a good book and I know the review is short and does not cover the whole book, but this is not about the summary of the book, just a glimpse of what is the book like and about