Maybe Geniuses Just Got Lucky

No pain,no gain..talent comes from sweet pain

No pain,no gain...

Malcolms been making the rounds,appearing on CNN,MSNBC,and now here in less than 24 hours.[which is exactly 9,976 hours less than being able to become a Beatle or a DiMaggio,or form of such],as Gladwell is a proponant of the ''ten thousand hour ''rule. This is,practice at anything for ten thousand hours without letup save possibly sleep and meals,and you will master the thing you are doing moving into new regions of inventive talent.. Early BEATLES -QUARRYMEN forays were junk,off-key,and out-of-chord synch. This would change with tough,indeed a brutal regimen of constant practice in the German bars and nightclubs where members would ''sleep where they stood'',rush to take GI baths in the ''loo'' and pick up their instruments again for another round,honing the edge of talent,with only Scotch and uppers as fuel. We are made aware of such talents as their lives,like those of a DiMaggio or Ted Wiliams,were not cut short. All moved into the region of mastery known as innovator. The later Beatles ''sound walls ''for instance. Williams studies of the batted ball for another,to be routinely copied by the lesser or the differant.

I think an important first step on the path to success is to ask oneself "what does success mean to me?" because so much of our understanding of success comes from somebody else's definition.

Hmmm, I dunno. I don't think Gladwell is saying that luck and chance determine one's success from day one for ALL INDIVIDUALS. I think he's just arguing that American society tends to over-rate individual talent and prowess while overlooking externalities such as environment.

I feel like there is something missing. Take the Beatles example: they got a job that required them to play eight hours a night--but if they had not been good to begin with then they wouldn't be able to get through that club. One can use family connections to get into a good college, but if you are an idiot that college won't help you too much.

It isn't enough to simply argue that luck or experience help, one must also disprove that personal initiative and some innate quality in the person is not a factor. That latter task is far more difficult.

Well, it's all ready begun: the Democrats are trying to use science to add credence to their agenda. In the 90's science claimed that homosexuals were born, not made, therefore gay couples should be allowed to marry. The #$@#$ Republicans played the same game. In Bush's first administration science claimed that married people lived longer than single people, marriage being a family value according to Republicans. Nobody can tell me that science is not politically motivated; it is.

Affirmative Action hurts the people it???s supposed to help. Malcolm Gladwell???s unscientific speculation that success is random has been shown to be false. For example, anyone can be an expert but it takes five years of hard work. Those who want blacks to be poor cover up the fact that blacks lost ground under Affirmative Action. What they don't want you to know is Affirmative Action was tried in India and the untouchables lost ground and tried in Singapore with the same results. As they say insanity, is doing same thing while expecting different results.

Every immigrant group had to work harder to be successful, then those around them, and because of that they achieved success. Hard work and overcoming obstacles is the only way to be successful.

I???m sure Malcolm Gladwell???s book didn???t appear out of thin air to spite what he told you. So people who work hard will tell others not to work to cut down on the competition. Still if he believes what he says then he will give everything he makes from the book to the poor.

Affirmative Action hurts the people it???s supposed to help. Malcolm Gladwell unscientific speculation that hard work has no effect on success has been shown to be a lie. Blacks lost ground under Affirmative Action but people who want them not to success is dismissed or try explain away the facts. They doesn???t want you to know that Affirmative Action was tried in India and the untouchables lost ground and tried in Singapore

with the same results.

If you really want to help a group, you would have them have work harder them others to become successful. Every immigrant group had to work harder to be successful and they achieved success. I???m sure both Malcolm Gladwell and Jerry Adler work very hard and telling others not to work because success is a random event protects them from competition.