David Epstein's The Outliers: The Story Of Success

The one thing we as humans can control is our effort, we can put as little or as much effort into something as we want. David Epstein and Malcom Gladwell take two different positions on whether we are able to control our own destiny's. But really who is correct? Epstein, the author of The Sports Gene states in the excerpt that some people are just born with a natural physical ability which allows them to perform well with little to no practice. Whereas Gladwell, author of The Outliers: The Story of Success, explains in the short passage that the more you practice the better you will become and perform. Malcom Gladwell, the author of The Outliers: Story of Success argues that we control things in our lives through practice and effort more effectively

than David Epstein's, The Sports Gene.

Epstein's, The Sports Gene is about Donald Thomas and Stefan Holm, two skilled high jumpers, he supports the idea that people can be genetically gifted. Epstein describes, Donald Thomas as a hot shot basketball player with a fairly large ego. After, Thomas had successfully cleared 6'8" and won the bet he had with Mattis, it was then when his high jumping career started. From there, Epstein takes the reader to the 2007 World Championship, where he competed against Stefan Holm, the reigning Olympic champion (Epstein 6). Epstein explains, how Thomas had hardly any practice and technique, however he was able to clear 8'2". He was crowned World Champion. With some technique and practice he possibly could have become the new world record holder for high jump (Epstein 7). Epstein explains, how Thomas had many tests done on him which concluded he was born with

a giant Achilles tendon for someone his size. However, Holm had an average size tendon. As stated by Masaki Ishikawa a neuromuscular scientist, "...The more elastic energy it can store when compressed. All the better to rocket the owner into the air" (Epstein 7). With a larger Achilles tendon Thomas had an advantage over Holm before the championship even started. Holm never really stood a chance against Thomas and his gift, even with the amount Holm practiced. Epstein concludes by stating that since the 2007 championship Thomas has not improved one centimeter (Epstein 8). Since, Epstein argument only focused on one's genetic makeup, he truly does contradict "practice makes perfect", and therefore doesn’t support the claim that people can control their own destiny's as well as Malcom Gladwell.

On the contrary, Gladwell makes a fascinating argument on how it is our own decision, whether we would like to control our destiny.

Gladwell explains, a study done by psychologist K. Anderson Ericson and two colleagues at a music school where there were three groups the students who had potential to become world class soloists, the merely good kids, and the kids who were very unlikely to ever play professionally. The study compared the number of hours each student was practicing a week and all together in their lifetime (Gladwell 11). The people who were practicing and putting forth more effort than everyone else became better, practice pays off. Violinists who played with the intent to get better and totaled ten thousand hours of practice were the elite performers. Those who totaled eight thousand were decent and those who totaled just over four thousand hours of practice were labeled as future music teachers. Ten thousand hours was what Gladwell had considered "mastery" (Gladwell 12). We are able to control how good we are by the amount of practice we are willing to put in. Also, Gladwell states how the famous composer Mozart almost developed late, he didn’t produce his best pieces until he had been composing for twenty years. This ties in with Gladwell's ten thousand hours of practice rule to develop mastery. Mozart probably would have practiced for more than ten thousand hours since he had been composing for such a long time (Gladwell 13). With all of Gladwell's

evidence combined he makes a compelling argument on how we our able to control our own destiny.