i’m reading malcolm gladwell’s new book, outliers. like his others, it’s a fascinating book. he takes a look successful people and analyses what made them succesful.
one section in particular i found interesting. he talks about people who scored at a genius level on IQ tests and the relationship that has to success – in particular, to winning a nobel prize. gladwell shows that there is essentially a threshold which if someone scores above a certain IQ test score they have the ability to become a nobel prize winner. to prove that he breaks down the recent winners and where they went to school. one would think that ivy league schools would produce a larger proportion of nobel winners than other schools. however, the list shows that they come from many different universities and ivy league schools are not represented more than your ‘average’ universities.
to make that point, he says:
to be a nobel prize winner, apparently, you have to be smart enough to get into a college at least as good as notre dame or the university of illinois. that’s all.
thanks malcolm. there goes the notion that i went to a highly respected academic institution.
remember that time pants cooked the food you like, hosted the tailgate, let you stay over night, visited you too often at school, learned how to text, took you to practice, made you feel uncomfortable when asking you about a gf or bf, cried when you left home, loved you more than should be possible. you probably do. cause it happens everyday.
