Outliers Malcolm Gladwell

Henry Wadworth Longfellow, and American poet from the 1800s, said, “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.” This concept I explained by, Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. He devotes chapters three and four to discussing “The Trouble with Geniuses.” The theory he outlines in this section of the book discusses how much of a factor high intelligent quotient is in determining success, versus how important upbringing is. He examines geniuses, who are commonly considered “the true outliers,” and their successes. Gladwell wrote these chapters with the purpose of persuading his target audience, and wrote with them in mind. He contextualizes his arguments for the readers

On the one hand, he is writing this section of his book for anyone interested in reading it. He would like everyone to know about his ideas. However, one could say he also had more specific audiences is mind. For one, he could be targeting people of average intelligence who feel they cannot succeed without incredible IQ. His arguments tell them that upbringing matters more than genius. He could also be directing these ideas to admissions boards for schools. Gladwell explains in these chapters that “practical intelligence” matters significantly more than purely high IQ numbers. He recommends that schools give a divergence test, rather than just a convergence test, like a typical IQ test. The divergence test looks at creativity and ability to think outside the box. These are skills that breed success more than IQ. Gladwell discusses this as the reason Nobel Prize winners do not all come from top colleges. They need to be “smart enough,” but once they have that, they need imagination to be able to win the Nobel Prize. Harvard is only testing intelligence, not creativity, and this is why not all winners come from there. Gladwell’s discussion of this topic in his book, including giving the idea of the divergence test to college admission boards, demonstrates that he is targeting them in his audience. Therefore, one can see that Gladwell wrote these chapters to persuade his

He uses pronouns such as “you,” “we,” and “us” in his chapter to include and address the reader. For example, he says “What I told you at the beginning of this chapter about the extraordinary intelligence of Chris Langan, in other words, is of little use if we want to understand his chances of being a success in the world” (Gladwell 90). He addresses the reader personally, seemingly including them in the process. Gladwell also uses phrases like “What does the story of Chris Langan tell us?” (Gladwell 96). This fosters a feeling that the reader is in the discovery along with Gladwell. This is how he addresses is audience all throughout the book, bringing them along the journey with him. Hence, it is seen that Gladwell wrote with his audience in