Outliers

So, I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers about why successful people are successful. (I could write a book about how to be unsuccessful, but that's another story.) The premise is that while we all grow up believing that with a little intelligence, perseverance, and lots of hard work, any among us can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and rise to super-stardom, the reality is that by far the prime ingredient in success is just dumb luck. Depending on how you look at it, this news can either be seriously depressing or wonderfully liberating; explaining both why some people work themselves to death and just can't seem to catch a break, and also how George W. could be president of the United States - twice! (thought I'd just get the political thing over with in my first blog!) Anyway, I'm only halfway through the book but I'm not sure I quite buy it. Cynic that I am, I think Mr. Gladwell's primary intent is to make money by selling a lot of books, and not many people would be interested in pure facts if they were not sensationalized somehow. Hmmm... somehow this turned into a book review. Oh well.
Tune in tomorrow when Uncle Wiggily gets cream cheese on his ear and Skeezicks goes in search of fresh bagels...