Once again, the norm is challenged.

I've been faithfully keeping up with Malcolm Gladwell's books. The first two were smash hits and so is the third. I think any decent planners should have read at least one of his books.

Outliers disrupts the norm of societal beliefs and the conclusions we so often jump into when associating success with innate intelligence when it could seriously (and most simplistically) be a series of fortunate events happening to person A over person B. Of course, intelligence isn't some trivial fact that's easily dismissable but like basketball players, after being over a certain height criteria, the feet don't measure up as much anymore. Same goes to intelligence, hence I guess there is ultimately a limitation to the phrase 'brain over brawn'. In this century of knowledge economy, everyone cites the importance of smart working over simple hardwork. Malcolm Gladwell plays the devil's advocate in putting that phrase which so often is the cause of the common misunderstanding of 'taking the easy way out' into the interrogation room and in doing so, interrogates it well. Maybe our forefathers had it right all along. It's the hardwork spent toiling the soil that brings in the greatest harvest.

Mind opening.