The Outliers

the outliers by malcolm gladwell study guide

Define an "outlier" according to Malcolm Gladwell. (Ch. 1)

• An outlier is something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body

What is the Roseto Mystery? (Ch. 1)

the unexplained phenomena of why no one in Roseta died of heart failure

In the 1950s, what was the leading cause of death in men under the age of 65? (Ch. 1)

heart failure

Of what do people in Roseto die? (Ch. 1)

old age

What explains the remarkable health of the people of Roseto? (Ch. 1)

The structure of their community

What, according to Gladwell, what a MISconception about Canadian hockey? (Ch. 1)

It is a pure meritocracy (Merit = Being good/skilled)

What is the purpose of Gladwell using the charts with hockey and soccer players' birth dates? What is he trying to prove? (Ch. 1)

to show that there is a correlation of people who play professional sports and their birthdates

Kelly Bedard and Elizabeth Dhuey, two economists, did a similar study regarding birthdays/ages in a setting other than athletics. What was the setting of their study? (Ch. 1)

classrooms

What were the results of their study? (Ch. 1)

• They found that among fourth graders, the oldest children scored somewhere between four and twelve percentile points better than the youngest children

• At four-year colleges in the United States—the highest stream of postsecondary education—students belonging to the relatively youngest group in their class are under-represented by about 11.6 percent. That initial difference in maturity doesn't go away with time

What is the 10,000-Hour Rule? (Ch. 2)

An idea about the importance of practice in achieving excellence

What advantage did Bill Gates have during his schooling? (Ch. 2)

A computer terminal in his school

Who, at the time The Outliers was published, was the richest man in history? (Ch. 2)

John D. Rockefeller

What was the ideal birth decade for an American industrial tycoon? (Ch. 2)

1831-1840

A child's opportunity to master a skill by practicing can directly affected by _ (Ch. 2)

• parents' work schedules

• parents' financial ability to pay team fees

What was a major turning point in Bill Gates life that lead him to his achievements? (Ch. 2)

His parents enrolled him in an exclusive preparatory school

Why is it almost impossible to reach 10,000 hours of practice by the time you're a young adult? (Ch. 2 )

You need to have resources, time and facilities.

What was the ideal birth decade for a Silicon Valley entrepreneur? (Ch. 2)

1960s

What early advantage did Steve Jobs have in his technology career? (Ch. 2)

Grew-up in a neighborhood with Hewlett-Packard scientists

To what school did Bill Joy go, allowing access to state-of-the-art computer programming? (Ch. 2)

University of Michigan

T/F: Malcolm Gladwell asserts/claims that "innate/natural talent" is the biggest factor in a person's success. (Ch. 2)

False

K. Anders Ericsson did a study of the students' practice hours at the Berlin Academy of _ (Ch. 2)

Music

Who famously began writing music at the age of six? (Ch. 2)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Complete the quote: "__ isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good." (Ch. 2)

Practice

What famous band is referenced in Chapter 2 as becoming masters of their music? (Ch. 2)

The Beatles

Gladwell lists the "Seventy-five __ people in human history" to illustrate his point about the importance of opportunity. (Ch.2)

richest

In what year did the University of Michigan open up its 1st computer center? (Ch. 2)

1971

How did one of the faculty members describe the enormous computer mainframe at The University of Michigan? (Ch. 2)

Looks like 2001: A Space Odyssey

Which one of Ericsson's research subjects along with their habits would be most likely to reach the 10,000 hour mastery level first? (Ch. 2)

Chelsea playing the Triangle everyday.

How long did The Beatles play while they were in Hamburg, Germany? (Ch. 2)

8 hours a day, 7 days a week.

How does Gladwell define "practicing" in this book? (Ch. 2)

purpose-fully and single-mindedly practicing a skill with the intent to get better

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, geniuses are the ultimate outliers. (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: Lewis Terman was a psychologist interested in animal testing. (Ch. 3)

False

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Lewis Terman's "specialty" was intelligence testing. (Ch. 3)

True

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, what did Lewis Terman's study involve? (Ch. 3)

Following high-IQ students over an extended time period

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen could brief a semester's worth of textbooks in two days. (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen fell asleep during the SAT and still received a perfect score. (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, IQ of 70 is considered average. (Ch. 3)

False

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, a University of Michigan study claimed/asserted that minority law students in the study were less qualified than white law students after graduation. (Ch. 3)

False

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, the higher your IQ the longer you'll live. (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen stopped short of the $1,000,000 prize on the TV quiz show and took the $250,000. (Ch. 3)

True

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, on what TV show did Chris Langan appear? (Ch. 3)

1 vs. 100

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, what is considered an average IQ? (Ch. 3)

100

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, above what IQ will there cease to be any real-world advantage? In other words, once you reach this IQ, a person with a higher IQ than your IQ doesn't have a real-world advantage over you. (Ch. 3)

120

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, what is Chris Langan's IQ? (Ch. 3)

195

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen's IQ is 30% higher than (Ch. 3)

Albert Einstein

According to The Outliers - Chapter 3, Chris Langen learned to speak when he was ____ (Ch. 3)

6 months old

T/F: Terman tracked the lives of "geniuses" until the graduated from high school, at which point he stopped studying them. (Ch. 3)

False

T/F: According to this chapter, people with an IQ of a 70 are considered mentally-disabled. (Ch. 3)

True

The kids that Terman tracked throughout their lives were called __ (Ch. 3)

Terman's Termites

T/F: Lewis Terman once said this: "There is nothing about an individual as important as his IQ, except possibly his morals." (Ch. 3)

True

(Right or wrong) Turns out that Terman was __ about the notion that IQ = success. (Ch. 3)

Wrong

T/F: Someone with an IQ of 160 has a better chance of being successful than someone with a 125 IQ. (Ch. 3)

False

A Nobel Prize winner (in medicine) mentioned in this chapter went to which school? (Ch. 3)

Union College Kentucky (Barbourville, Kentucky)

The last 25 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry went to (Ch. 3)

• City College of New York

• Stanford University

• University of Dayton, Ohio

• Rollins College, Florida

• MIT

• Grinnell College

• McGill University

• Georgia Institute of Technology

• Harvard University

• University of Illinois

• Notre Dame 

T/F: In school, Chris Langan could walk into a test in a foreign language class, not having studied at all, and if there were two or three minutes before the instructor arrived, he could skim through the textbook and ace the test (Ch. 3)

True

T/F: Chris Langan began talking when he was 6 months old. (Ch. 4)

True

This was an event in Chris Langan's life (Ch. 4)

• his biological father disappeared before he was born.

• his first stepfather was murdered.

• his second stepfather committed suicide.

• his third stepfather was abusive.

T/F: Despite Chris Langan's extreme intelligence and high IQ, he was not offered a full scholarship to any colleges or universities. (Ch. 4)

False

According to Chris Langan himself, one reason that Langan did not fit-in with his classmates when he went to college was that _ (Ch. 4)

• his other three roommates smoked pot

• everyone was inquisitive and asked lots of questions

What were Langan's grades for the first semester and for the second semester in college? (Ch. 4)

Straight A s for the first semester and straight F's for the second semester

Why did Chris Langan request afternoon classes at Montana State? (Ch. 4)

His transmission fell out of his car.

What is the connection between the Cognitive Theory of the Model of the Universe (CTMU) and Langan? (Ch. 4)

He wrote the Theory himself.

When Langan questioned why his college Calculus professor taught the way he taught, the professor's response about himself was this: (Ch. 4)

"Some people just don't have the intellectual firepower to be mathematicians."

What does Chris Langan say now about people in the world who are smarter than he? (Ch. 4)

"I don't think there is anyone smarter than me out there."

Why did Chris Langan lose his full academic scholarship at the end of his first year of college? (Ch. 4)

His mom didn't fill-out the financial aid forms to renew his scholarship

What contribution did Robert Oppenheimer make to our country? (Ch. 4)

He headed the American effort to develop the nuclear bomb during World War II.

Describe Oppenheimer's childhood. (Ch. 4)

He was well-traveled, well-schooled, and wealthy.

What did Oppenheimer collect, resulting in his being invited, at age 12, to lecture to the New York Mineralogical Club? (Ch. 4)

Rocks

Describe what happened between Oppenheimer and his tutor? (Ch. 4)

Oppenheimer tried to poison him

What was Oppenheimer's punishment for the crime that he committed in graduate school? (Ch. 4)

• He was put on probation.

• He was required to see a psychiatrist.

Describe the role that sociologist Annette Lareau played in the lives of 12 families from this chapter. (Ch. 4)

She was an observer in their lives

T/F: Lareau found that wealthy families were more involved in their children's academic affairs than the poor families. (Ch. 4)

True

T/F: Lareau's study found that the parents in the "poor families" that she studied visited schools to address academic affairs just as much as the parents of "wealthy families." (Ch. 4)

False

T/F: Lareau found that low-income children, when in the presence of an authority figure such as a doctor, would be quiet and submissive, with eyes turned away. (Ch. 4)

True

T/F: Lareau found that poorer children were often better behaved, less whiny, more creative in making use of their own time, and had a well-developed sense of independence. (Ch. 4)

True

This chapter discusses family feuds in the eastern Kentucky counties of ___ (Ch. 6)

• Harlan

• Perry

• Rowan

When the Howards went to Mrs. Turner to ask for a truce after her son was killed, Mrs. Turner said _ (Ch. 6)

"You can't wipe out that blood."

T/F: When Will Turner was shot and was howling in pain, his mother told him to "Die like a man…like your brother did!" (Ch. 6)

True

Gladwell claims that "lots of families fight[ing] in identical little towns…" shows a… (Ch. 6)

pattern

Sociologists studying culture claim that there is a "Culture of ___" in the Appalachian region. (Ch. 6)

Honor

T/F: According to Gladwell, "farmers have to worry about their livelihood being stolen." (Ch. 6)

Mostly false

T/F: According to Gladwell, herdsmen have to worry about their livelihood being stolen. (Ch. 6)

Mostly true

According to this chapter, herdsmen… (Ch. 6)

• are clannish.

• form tight family bonds.

• place a loyalty to blood above all else.

T/F: Chapter 6 claims murder rates in the South are higher than they are in the rest of the country. (Ch. 6)

True

T/F: Chapter 6 claims "stranger crimes" in the South are lower than they are in the rest of the U.S. (Ch. 6)

True

T/F: Chapter 6 claims that "muggings" occur less in the South than in the rest of America. (Ch. 6)

True

Who said this: "He wouldn't of been much of a man if he hadn't shot them fellows." (Ch. 6)

a jury member after a murderer was found not guilty

American backcountry states (including Kentucky) were settled by immigrants primarily from __ (Ch. 6)

• England

• Scotland

• Ireland

In the early 1990s, two psychologists did a study on the culture of honor in (Ch. 6)

modern-day decendents English borderland immigrants

T/F: The two psychologists, Cohen and Nisbett, decided that they would "insult" their male subjects. (Ch. 6)

True

T/F: The subjects in the experiment were female students at the University of Michigan in the north. (Ch. 6)

False

Cohen and Nisbett instructed a colleague to call the UM students _ in order to insult them? (Ch. 6)

"asshole"

The psychologists looked at ____ to determine the reaction of the subjects after the insult (Ch. 6)

• their handshakes

• their hormone levels

• their reactions to a story

T/F: The Northerners and the Southerners reacted the same to the insults. (Ch. 6)

False

T/F: Cohen and Nisbett's study showed that U of M students, who were originally from "The South" but who physically lived there at the university, which is located in The North, acted more like their Northern friends than their Southern relatives. (Ch. 6)

False

T/F: Korean airlines crash rate was - at one time - 17 times the crash rate of United Airlines. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: The catalyst for the crash of the Columbian airline "Avianca" was the plane ran out of gas. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: In the Air Florida crash, the co-pilot never hints to the pilot that there is ice on the plane. (Ch. 7)

False

T/F: According to the chapter, planes that come-in "heavy" sometimes dump fuel as they are flying. (Ch. 7)

True

T/F: PDI is the Power Distance Index, which is how much a culture values and respects authority. (Ch. 7)

True