Outliers

The Outliers. Hmmm.

We all hear about the "exceptional" accomplishments that "great" leaders of our society have completed. We hear that majority of them started quite young. They were tinkering in their field waaaaay before any of us even have an idea of what we want to be once we are out of college.

In chapter 2 of the Outliers, I thought it was very interesting that Bill Joy has such a big part to our programming system, yet no one had even heard of his name in our classroom. His programs are still being used even today. (Like, WHUUUT? That's crazy! How do we not hear about him? Especially if our generation is basically attached at the hip with technology) It is unfortunate that his name is not as well-known as someone like Bill Gates or even someone as old as Thomas Edison.

The chapter is titled "The 10,000 Hour Rule" --which basically explains the 10,000 hours (at least) that leaders and prodigies spend in their field to become as great as they are. I thought it was funny that much our class thought of the activities he or she does. We all tried to calculate the amount of hours we have invested in a specific activity. Majority of our class was not very close to the 10,000 hours.

Was it encouraging or discouraging? Surprisingly, it really did not have an effect on me. I was neither disappointed nor motivated. I just thought the chapter was intriguing. Some of the others in our class did find it discouraging--and I can see why. 10,000 hours? Like seriously? I don't see myself as one of those people to be an "outlier," but I can still be successful in my own way.

:)