In my class called Gifted and Talented seminar 1, we are reading Outliers. Outliers is written by Malcolm Gladwell; and in the book he talks about how some people achieved success, and the reasons why. He called these people Outliers. Outliers are people who have an extraoridnary ability, whether it be for intelligence, or anything else that sets them apart from other people. Outliers are outstanding people who have the potential to become extremely succesful in life and many of them have extraordinary IQ's, but as Malcolm Gladwell explains not every outlier does become successful.
He explains why not every outlier becomes successful in the chapters 3 and 4(The Trouble with geniuses part 1 and 2). He tells you that there is a lot more to someone being succesful than just IQ. IQ only matters up to certain point or threshold, which happens to be 120. Someone with an IQ of 120 could win a nobel prize, and be extremely successful, where someone with an IQ of 190 could be unsuccessful and work as a garbage man or mailman. He tells you that even though having a high IQ is important, it is also important to have practical intelligence(street smarts/people skills). Even though the person with the IQ of 190 is extremely smart, he is not as successful as the person with the IQ of 120 because he doens't have practical intelligence. Malcolm Gladwell links the skill of practical intelligence to someone's bacround. He tells you that backround has everything to do with success. Someone born in a better environment has a better chance than someone who was born in a worse environment. For example, he compares the middle/upper class working americans to the lower class working americans. He says that the children born in the middle/upper class have what is called entitlement. Which basically means they were not afraid to ask for help when needed and were not afraid to ask questions, be curious, and be the center of attention. This led them to developing the skill of practical intelligence. The children of the lower class didn't have entitlement, they were more independent and preferred to learn and develop on their own, therefore they never developed the skill of practical intelligence. So basically the key to succes is not only having a high IQ, but also having the skill called practical intelligence.
Now, the question is; is Chris Langen succesful? "For those of you who don't who Chris Langen is, here is a brief bio of who he is. He is the smartest man in America, with an IQ of 195, a longer bio of him can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Langan." I do believe that Chris Langan is successful. He is the smartest man in america with an IQ of 195. In the book, it says that he is content, with farm animals to look after. He has a wife he loves, a nice house, a computer with all the knowledge he could ever want, he has books to read, and is currently working on his own theory of the universe. I would call that successful, even if he didn't complete college and could've done better.
Now in my class, we only just finished the fourth chapter and we have 5 more and an epilouge to read, but i feel like i've learned so much from the book already. For example, i learned that IQ isn't the only thing that goes into being extremely successful. You also have to have practical intelligence. I can now take what i've just learned and apply it to my life. I am going to try and develop practical intelligence, and really work hard to become a doctor. I can hardly wait to see what else this book has to teach me.
