Outliers

In Chapter 4, Chris Langan’s family background is discussed in depth. He and his three brothers each had different fathers; his was never in his life. His stepfather was an abusive drinker who didn’t provide for the family. They were poor and grew up mostly in Montana. Langan got a full scholarship to Reed College but, having grown up isolated in a dysfunctional family, did not have the social skills to succeed there. A paperwork error led to the loss of his scholarship and he had to return home. There he worked for a time before taking classes at Montana State University. He dropped out when his request to change a class from morning to afternoon was denied. After that, he worked in construction and manufacturing before becoming a bouncer at a bar.

Gladwell then contrasts this story with that of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who led the effort to develop the first atom bomb. He, like Langan, was a smart, precocious child, but he went off to Harvard and then Cambridge for his education, earning a PhD in physics. During a bout of depression at the latter institution, he tried to poison his tutor. Gladwell puts it this way:

Here we have two very brilliant young students, each of whom runs into a problem that imperils his college career. Langan’s mother has missed a deadline for his financial aid. Oppenheimer has tried to poison his tutor. To continue on, they are required to plead their cases to authority. And what happens? Langan gets his scholarship taken away, and Oppenheimer gets sent to a psychiatrist. Oppenheimer and Langan might both be geniuses, but in other ways, they could not be more different. (98)

The explanation lies in how they were brought up. Langan had none of the advantages of Oppenheimer, who grew up in a secure, well-off family in Manhattan. The latter developed what is called “practical intelligence,” knowing how to get what you want, especially through interacting with others. Gladwell presents research by Annette Lareau, who studied families from all different backgrounds. She found that children from wealthier families learned life skills because they were coached from an early age to take the initiative, ask questions, and feel confident in speaking with authority figures. Terman’s IQ research bore this out as well: When he looked closely at a part of his cohort as adults, he found that the differences in their success could be attributed solely to family background. 

This long chapter takes an in-depth look at the experience of a certain group of people in New York City in the early- and mid-20th century. The three lessons referred to in the chapter title are being Jewish, having demographic luck, and working in the garment industry. At the time Gladwell describes, Jews were discriminated against in the legal profession. The top law firms in New York were all dominated by White American Protestants, and no matter how promising or well-credentialed, Jewish attorneys were not hired by them. Instead, lawyers of Jewish background joined lesser firms or opened their own. This obviously worked against them initially, but they put in their time, gaining experience toward the 10,000-hour level of expertise. They also worked on corporate takeovers that the White American Protestant firms thought beneath them. When takeovers became common and lucrative in the 1970s, the Jewish lawyers were poised to capitalize on the moment.

The second lesson is demographic luck. Gladwell demonstrates that the Great Depression and World War II created a dividing line that impacted the success of that generation. Those born a little earlier, who graduated from college and began work when the economy was poor, never gained traction to make it big. If they served in the war, it only further interrupted their career trajectory. However, those born a little later, who graduated and began working at the very end of the Depression, went off to war when they were still quite young; they returned to start their careers in earnest and earned more success. The data from Terman’s intelligence study bears this out.

The third lesson Gladwell notes is the significance of work in the garment industry in the first half of the 20th century. Many Jewish immigrants to America came with experience in this trade from their home countries in Eastern Europe, right at a time when New York City offered many opportunities in the industry. For example, Louis and Regina Borgenicht were emigrants from Eastern Europe who arrived in New York at the end of the 19th century. The Borgenichts were Jews, who were prohibited from owning land (the usual source of wealth) in most of Europe. Most immigrants were poor, and the Borgenichts were no exception. However, they had a skill in producing clothing, which was in demand at that time when the New York garment industry was taking off. They could thus go into business for themselves and, through hard work, make enough money to put their children through college, many of whom became professionals.

To highlight these three points, Gladwell uses several examples, such as Joe Flom, whose law firm earns over $1 billion per year worldwide—according to Gladwell, “one of the largest and most powerful law firms in the world” (119). Flom had all three of the above conditions in his life. The same goes for his firm’s main competitor: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz (the four founders) also had these conditions. Gladwell concludes that despite the odds against them early in life, they came out ahead of the elite, White American Protestant firms because “[t]heir world—their culture and generation and family history—gave them the greatest of opportunities” (158).