Lessons from "Outliers" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Supportive environment

The effect was first noticed in 1961 by two physicians casually discussing the lower rates of myocardial infarction in the community. Despite having a similar diet and exercise regime to nearby towns, as well as a similar genetic predisposition, the lower rates of disease were linked to significantly lower stress in the close-knit, supportive community. Years later, when the community shed its Italian social structure and became more Americanized, reducing the close familial bonds, heart diseases increased back to the previous national average.

Answer: Ice hockey

Gladwell theorizes that the disproportionate amount of professional hockey players born at the beginning of the year is due to the way hockey leagues at the junior level are managed. The birth year is used to separate children in hockey leagues (for instance all 1991 births), and kids born in the earlier months are bigger and more mature on average than kids born in the later months of the year.

As a result, these kids display more talent on the ice and receive more support and training, while smaller children with less dexterity for their age group are discouraged from continuing the sport, leading to a statistical variance.

Answer: 10,000

The 10,000 hour rule states that while talent and luck are important in any field, one must spend 10,000 hours at the task at hand in order to become truly elite. Gladwell claims that one can only become truly an expert at their field if they have both dedication and luck. Neither alone is strong enough to predict elite performance.

Answer: Bill Gates

The author mentions Bill Gates as a prime example of extreme luck / timing and dedication. He claims that many tech billionaires were born at just the right time to become teenagers in the late 1960s and early 1970s when computer processing was hitting its true stride. Bill Gates coded for 10,000 hours during his high school days because he was lucky enough to have access to a computer, something most children in those days would not have had. Gladwell claims that Bill Gates certainly had the intelligence and will to become a highly successful person, but he may not have been a multi-billionaire if he was not born at exactly the right time and exposed to the perfect machine that met his skill set.

Answer: The Beatles

Gladwell credits the extensive playing time in front of live audiences in Germany, where the Beatles played over 1200 times, for the development of their unique sound. The band played multiple sets for many hours with an exhausting schedule. When the foursome finally became successful, they had a competitive edge in the music industry due to their extensive experience playing together and testing out what worked best for audiences.

Answer: J. Robert Oppenheimer

Christopher Langan was born in destitute circumstances without much family support, while Oppenheimer was born in favorable circumstances. Gladwell uses the example of Langan, an absolute genius by any metric, to illustrate how innate ability alone is not enough - where you are born and how you are born matter just as much. Because Langan was bullied and beaten by friends and family, and not lauded for his intelligence the way Oppenheimer was, he was a horse farmer and bouncer when his IQ scores were discovered and he was eventually nicknamed the "smartest man in America".

Answer: Rice farming

Gladwell states that the cultivation of rice as the staple crop in East Asia led to a different cultural approach to problem-solving and work ethic. The rice crop requires diligence and care that other staple crops do not, leading to a cultural shift in work ethic and an increased focus on patience that continues to be present in East Asian cultures to this day.

While the rice farming theory has its critics, Gladwell does claim that is only one of many reasons for cultural differences between Eastern and Western civilizations.

Answer: The Matthew Effect

The Matthew effect is essentially another way to say "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". This concept is a paraphrase of a parable recounted in Matthew 25:29 (and several other parables from the gospels of Mark and Luke). The phrase was originally coined by sociologists Robert K. Merton and Harriet Zuckerman.

Gladwell uses the Matthew effect to illustrate the impact birth order has in hockey leagues, Bill Gates and other computer pioneers pressing their advantage, and the Beatles' rise. Gladwell claims that giving someone even a small head start can snowball due to positive reinforcement, and the growth becomes exponential, while those not given the head start struggle ever harder to catch up.

Answer: Colombia and South Korea

The "Power Distance Theory" contrasts cultural attitudes towards authority. Gladwell claims that a series of Korean Air incidents in the 1980s revealed a hesitancy on the part of co-pilots and other flight crew to immediately challenge their superior officer in case of a disagreement.

The airline made sweeping changes to its training programs and stressed effective communication between superiors and subordinates, creating a lower cultural "power distance". Meanwhile, Colombian cockpits that had not gone through as similar training regimen, maintained a higher cultural "power distance" between pilots and first officers, an issue that directly resulted in Avianca Flight 52 crashing in 1990.

Answer: Summer vacation

The study spanned five years and found that for young minds, consistency is the most important and key aspect to learning. Children with more involved parents do not suffer as much from extended summer vacations, because these kids are often kept stimulated, either with summer homework, or with other educational milieus with which to maintain continuity. Meanwhile, kids with less involved or less financially capable parents would have a complete break from schoolwork, making it more difficult for them to catch up with their peers when the school year returned, as they had to retrain their brains from scratch to learn and absorb information they hadn't seen for months.