Time to Switch From Debit to Credit When Paying for Things?

Gladwell’s new book,
Outliers: The Story of Success
is phenomenal. It covers something I’ve been thinking about for years:
the algorithm for success. It’s a common and popular subject, and it
usually ends up reducing to a nature vs. nurture debate.

I’d say the new Gladwell book scores big for nurture.

I’m only in the third chapter, but a couple of main themes stand out so far:

1. Small environmental advantages magnify themselves over time, and it’s
   easy to confuse talent/specialness with environmental advantage.

2. Practice is pivotal, and environment determines who has the luxury/luck
   of being able to do it.

3. Nature somehow seems to separate those with from those without. Gladwell
   calls it the Matthew effect, from the Bible:

So basically, as you gain advantage your ability to gain advantage
multiplies, and if you lack it, it just gets tougher. I agree strongly with
this.

It’s not that individual traits don’t matter, like perseverance and
dedication and such, it’s just that I think even those come from either your
genetics or your upbringing and environment.

Either way it’s becoming a lot harder to be an intelligent, accomplished
snob. Perhaps this is why Gates and Buffet have become so liberal in their
mature years. They figured out that they are lucky, and that it’s their
obligation to help make others lucky too. ::

Links

[
Outliers: The Story of Success | amazon.com ]