"Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell
"Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell
First read: 05.09.10
The theory behind this book is quite simple. 1) Success is not achieved by an individual independently of their circumstances (self-made man = myth) 2) Cultural values influence people's attitudes towards life and therefore shape their personalities and lifes as much as individual events that happen to particular people. The book takes you through data and many cases that examplify these. Very interesting, if a bit repetitive at times.
Quotes:
The questionnaires were long and involved, and over
time Hofstede was able to develop an enormous database
for analyzing the ways in which cultures differ from one
another. Today "Hofstede's Dimensions" are among the
most widely used paradigms in crosscultural psychology.
Hofstede argued, for example, that cultures can be
usefully distinguished according to how much they expect individuals to look after themselves. He called that measurement
the "individualism-collectivism scale." The country
that scores highest on the individualism end of that
scale is the United States. Not surprisingly, the United
States is also the only industrialized country in the world
that does not provide its citizens with universal health
care. At the opposite end of the scale is Guatemala.
Another of Hofstede's dimensions is "uncertainty
avoidance." How well does a culture tolerate ambiguity?
Here are the top five "uncertainty avoidance" countries,
according to Hofstede's database-that is, the countries
most reliant on rules and plans and most likely to stick to
procedure regardless of circumstances:
1. Greece
2. Portugal
3. Guatemala
4. Uruguay
5. Belgium
The bottom five-that is, the cultures best able to tolerate
ambiguity-are:
49. Hong Kong
50. Sweden
51. Denmark
52. Jamaica
53. Singapore
It is important to note that Hofstede wasn't suggesting
that there was a right place or a wrong place to be on
any one of these scales. Nor was he saying that a culture's position on one of his dimensions was an ironclad predictor
of how someone from that country behaves: it's not
impossible, for example, for someone from Guatemala to
be highly individualistic.
Transmittor orientation (Western cultures): it’s the responsibility of the speaker to make himself clear. Receiver orientation: it’s the receiver’s responsibility (Eastern cultures)
[High power distance is polite and nice but it only works if you have the time to decode, not in an emergency situation.]
TBA --> 004 m1.50 to 005
008 m1
014 m3.10 to 015
019 m2.10 to 020 m.010
022 m1.15
023
024 1.15
030 m2 to 031
2010, 2010: non-fiction in english, book-2010, #audiobook, *author: male, @read in english, #non-fiction, [quotes], [quotes] book/non-fiction, [quotes] books
First read: 05.09.10
The theory behind this book is quite simple. 1) Success is not achieved by an individual independently of their circumstances (self-made man = myth) 2) Cultural values influence people's attitudes towards life and therefore shape their personalities and lifes as much as individual events that happen to particular people. The book takes you through data and many cases that examplify these. Very interesting, if a bit repetitive at times.
Quotes:
The questionnaires were long and involved, and over
time Hofstede was able to develop an enormous database
for analyzing the ways in which cultures differ from one
another. Today "Hofstede's Dimensions" are among the
most widely used paradigms in crosscultural psychology.
Hofstede argued, for example, that cultures can be
usefully distinguished according to how much they expect individuals to look after themselves. He called that measurement
the "individualism-collectivism scale." The country
that scores highest on the individualism end of that
scale is the United States. Not surprisingly, the United
States is also the only industrialized country in the world
that does not provide its citizens with universal health
care. At the opposite end of the scale is Guatemala.
Another of Hofstede's dimensions is "uncertainty
avoidance." How well does a culture tolerate ambiguity?
Here are the top five "uncertainty avoidance" countries,
according to Hofstede's database-that is, the countries
most reliant on rules and plans and most likely to stick to
procedure regardless of circumstances:
1. Greece
2. Portugal
3. Guatemala
4. Uruguay
5. Belgium
The bottom five-that is, the cultures best able to tolerate
ambiguity-are:
49. Hong Kong
50. Sweden
51. Denmark
52. Jamaica
53. Singapore
It is important to note that Hofstede wasn't suggesting
that there was a right place or a wrong place to be on
any one of these scales. Nor was he saying that a culture's position on one of his dimensions was an ironclad predictor
of how someone from that country behaves: it's not
impossible, for example, for someone from Guatemala to
be highly individualistic.
Transmittor orientation (Western cultures): it’s the responsibility of the speaker to make himself clear. Receiver orientation: it’s the receiver’s responsibility (Eastern cultures)
[High power distance is polite and nice but it only works if you have the time to decode, not in an emergency situation.]
TBA --> 004 m1.50 to 005
008 m1
014 m3.10 to 015
019 m2.10 to 020 m.010
022 m1.15
023
024 1.15
030 m2 to 031
2010, 2010: non-fiction in english, book-2010, #audiobook, *author: male, @read in english, #non-fiction, [quotes], [quotes] book/non-fiction, [quotes] books