Outliers presents the numbers

[katestine]

I'm glad to see Outliers at the top of the best seller list, bc it's so un-PC, I didn't think it could be. I don't understand how you can talk about it, without sounding elitist, racist, or both. It's also the most anti-libertarian book I've ever read, bc the premise of the book is that extraordinary success comes not as a result of hard work,

Comments

[saintswife]

I'm halfway through, but not to the corn/wheat/rice part yet.

I read the chinese and math part off his website - he has a couple of short excerpts there.

Really liked the part about what word offends 20 year old men in the south. Having been raised there it was all so true.

[katestine]

Really liked the part about what word offends 20 year old men in the south. Having been raised there it was all so true.

Nice to get confirmation on that.

[thewronghands]

As a Southerner, can you give me a hint, or do I have to go read the book?

[saintswife]

Here you go

http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/outliers_excerpt2.html

[thewronghands]

Oh, yeah, that's absolutely true. But I suspect that there are several other insults that would have done as well. I would guess that it's being insulted, as opposed to that particular magic word, though some words are likely to be worse than others.

Now I want to see a similar test with every bad word in the book to discover the ur-insult.

Also, thanks!