Jozef's Notes

Rat Salad - Black The Classic Years by Paul Wilkinson

Black Sabbath were a phenomenon. No other band in the 70s and early 80s conjured up dark and devilish images from a musical artist standpoint than Black Sabbath did. Their music was by no means easy listening stuff and although the band members have repeatedly denied any literal dabbling in the occult, the general perception was that they were ‘Satanist’ true and through. That was perfectly okay in the grand scheme of things for everyone involved with the band – negative publicity was good publicity. No?

Aside that, some of us became sworn followers, some of us enjoyed a few  tracks of theirs every once in a while. We also had those who pretended that they did but remained clueless to the ‘genius-ness’ of the music. And then there were those, who loathed and despised the Band. Honestly, real fans like me didn’t really care – to us Sabbath epitomised the music of the era!

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(Source: jworqprojeqs.com)

Outliers - The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Rating : 4 of 5 Stars

In the wake of finishing ‘Blink’ I settled right into ‘Outliers’. I just felt it was the logical thing to do after the ‘Blink’ episode. I craved that added ‘Intel’ on mind and behaviour to help me understand my  ‘success’ as ‘Outliers’ so plainly outlined.

By now everybody knows Malcolm Gladwell also authored ‘Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink’ and if you’ve read these earlier books, you knew then Gladwell’s angle on his subject matters.

Thus, true to form, ‘Outliers’ addressed issues on the sublime human interactions that you and I have experienced sometimes or thought of in passing but hardly made the in roads to explore further. In that sense, that was what Malcolm Gladwell readily does in our stead in this book. He deduced the theory that success and failure were correlated  to uncontrollable factors in our lives - it’s not all hard work and intelligence.

‘Outliers’ was truly fun to read despite the rather obvious ‘The Story of Success’ subtitle. Just like in ‘Blink’, Gladwell writes with ease of prose and in a direct way. He supported his examples with proven facts and explained simply without heavy jargons and scientific terminologies. This style was what that made his books especially ‘Outliers’ such a treat for his readers .

Of course, the book negotiated elements of sheer coincidences to point out that we all have histories that did or undid particular events that which eventually launched us on our way to success (or failure for that matter). You can disagree with this argument if you liked. What we need to understand however, is that these ‘coincidences’ were not perhaps coincidental after all but rather ‘fortunate’ opportunities showing its hand while we were ready at the opportune time to seize it. It’s all about timing and circumstances to put it in another way.  There’s some level of truth to this claim actually if you thought about it.

Do I agree with ‘Outliers’?  Yeah I do. As I read the book I examined my life as far as I could remember and certain things that happened or I wish happened did in fact sway my journey to my current place in life. Okay, let’s be honest here. ‘Outliers’ can also depress you. Because if at this juncture, you were down on your luck or in some sort of predicament, the book might show things that you wouldn’t want to know or believe. On the flip side if things were hunky dory then ‘Outliers’ might just be your favourite book!

Anyway, Malcolm Gladwell ended the book quite nicely with profound anecdotes of his personal history and why and how he came to his deductions that which inspired ‘Outliers’. This was quite endearing and made the deepest of logic for his part in writing the book. I therefore recommend that you read it too. It’s pleasantly enjoyable even if you are not at your gleeful best right now. For what’s its worth, ‘Outliers’ might just offer you some relevant insights to your current state.

 My other recent book reviews

• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
• Rat Salad – Black Sabbath Classic Years 1969 - 1975 by Paul Wilkinson

(Source: jworqprojeqs.com)

By Malcolm Gladwell

Rating : 4 of 5 star

In ‘Tipping Point’ Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the world around us and how we understood that world. Now in ‘Blink’ he explains how we make snap judgements in our everyday living in that same world. According to him, our inner self has that wonderful ability to aid us decide - if we pay close attention to it that is. I think, he seems to know what he is talking about; to be honest.

Before I go further, let me say that this is the kind of book that you’d read once in a while, not because you needed help with your everyday decision-making tasks but more so because, somewhere along the way you heard about Malcolm Gladwell or read his earlier book. Like I said, he wrote ‘Tipping Point’ and it was a bestseller. I picked ‘Blink’ to read for the same reasons.

Nonetheless, ‘Blink’ was quite engaging really and Gladwell captivates you with his layman psychology above all. You want to know why?

Well first off, ‘Blink’ thrived on simplicity. I never once felt overwhelmed with the depth of information and examples the book offered. Gladwell does not patronise you in any way either. The sample cases he referred to were scientific no doubt; with measurable data. But despite the neuroscience theme, the book wasn’t a difficult read at all. It turned out rather enjoyable in fact.

However, it’s always difficult to express how you feel about a book that’s based on neuropsychology. I mean, human nature is a complicated subject; and we question and argue theories about it every day. So, with ‘Blink’, you have a choice to either test the book’s prognosis or dump it as rubbish. You don’t have to agree with Gladwell at all but he does make you think. That in essence, was his aim for ‘Blink’ I believe – self-inspection.

In his own way he stamps that, although we live in separate societies and in different cultural economics, our decision-making senses work the same way regardless where we come from. When you look at Gladwell’s arguments, you’ll see that his revelations were very insightful and clever. They were also well-placed and proven facts backed by very knowledgeable scientists and psychologists.

So, although many readers criticised ‘Blink’ for its lightness, I found the book enlightening no matter and so did majority of others. After all it was another bestseller was it not?

My other recent book reviews

• Mao Zedong by Jonathan D. Spence
• Beware the Small States by David Hirst

Related articles

• Revisiting Malcolm Gladwell (800ceoread.com)
• Bank Of America Nabs Malcolm Gladwell To Educate Small Business Owners (huffingtonpost.com)
• Book Review: Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell (litterachi.wordpress.com)

(Source: jworqprojeqs.com)