The importance of cultural legacies is very prevalent throughout chapter seven of Outliers. The chapter, “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes”, discusses the history of Korean Air and the unbelievable number of plane crashes the company had throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. The author, Malcolm Gladwell, then goes on to investigate the causes of the crashes and more specifically the cultural traditions that cause the accidents. Gladwell starts the chapter with a specific plane crash that occurred while flying into Guam but the chapter quickly shifts to Gladwell analyzing what exactly is the source of a plane crash. Gladwell concludes that the accidents are not caused by a singular mistake, but instead a string of mistakes that come from a team …show more content…
miscommunication. The passage states that all Korean Air crashes shared the same theme of starting out as one simple error by the pilot, but then several other human errors are piled on top of the original error. The accumulation of errors leads to a disastrous crash. Gladwell further analyzes the crashes by investigating factors such as how long the pilot had been awake, if the crew members had not worked together before, and most important, Korea’s power distance. The several plane crash stories are contrasted throughout the chapter by plane survival stories, and the underlying theme between a plane crashing or landing is the difference in communication and leadership. As I discussed earlier, Korea is a very high power-distance country and this power-distance is passed down through cultural legacies.
Power-distance is important because the higher the distance, the less likely a person is to challenge authority. The challenges are critical in piloting because pilots are supposed to depend on their crewmembers to review their decisions to lead to the best choices. Koreans were taught not to command their boss, so a mistake could be allowed to go on and get worse since the co-pilot would not feel comfortable offering a solution. The other cultural legacy that played a large part in the crashes is the social legacy that Koreans rely heavily on subtle speech. Instead of directly stating a suggestion, Korean co pilots would hint at a problem and if the pilot did not pick up on the indirect hint the problem would continue on. This is evident in the chapter when the Korean engineer tells the Captain, “The weather radar has helped us a lot.” This quote is not just a general observation, but instead a specifically subtle way of telling the Captain to look at the radar and rely on it. The Korean cultural legacies of not specifically stating what they mean and the strong power-distance is what caused the Korean Air pilots to handle difficult flight situations in a very poor manner, causing several
accidents. I believe my cultural legacies influences my decisions on a subconscious level. The cultural legacies I hold appear to be normal to me but can be very different than someone in another country or even state. However, now that I know my legacy may not help me in every difficult situation I will attempt to broaden my responses to difficult situations in order to act in the best manner possible.
Chapter 5: Mary Roach explains the deaths caused by aircraft crash disasters. After having discussions with injury analyst she gains knowledge and makes notes. She publishes a book for others to know human remains can be evidence theses disasters.
In this analysis includes a summary of the characters and the issues they are dealing with, as well as concepts that are seen that we have discussed in class. Such as stereotyping and the lack of discrimination and prejudice, then finally I suggest a few actions that can be taken to help solve the issues at hand, allowing the involved parties to explain their positions and give them a few immersion opportunities to experience their individual cultures.
Malcolm Gladwell once said, “...people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.” The author, Wes Moore, of the book, The Other Wes Moore, is considered an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens based off of Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Wes’s story demonstrates objectives that define him as an outlier with the contributions of where he’s from, his advantages, and also his attitude over his ability. These contributions therefore define him as an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no such thing as a self-made man, and that success is only the result of a person’s circumstances. However, throughout the novel Gladwell points out that your circumstances and opportunities only help you become successful if you are willing to take advantage of them and work hard. From a twelve year old living in the Bronx, to those who were born at just the right time to become millionaires, one thing is the same throughout; these people because successful because they seized the opportunities they were given. The advantages and opportunities that came from their circumstances would not be important if they had not grasped them. Every successful man is self made, because he has seized the
Gladwell narrates along biographical sections in the chapter and leads you through the lives of his “successful” subjects. He explains a cause of success and the effect it has on the outliers and their lives. He effectively asks rhetorical questions to spark readers’ interest in a phenomenon and then he explains the phenomenon using r...
In the book “Outliers: The Story of Success” authored by Malcolm Gladwell, he explains what an outlier is and what it means to be “successful”. Throughout the novel, Gladwell provides examples by writing different stories in nine various chapters to support his claim. Gladwell believes that success isn’t gained by natural talent, but by the effects of other circumstances and that these people are called outliers. It’s the argument of nature vs. nurture that Gladwell wants to address in his book. Many people in society would think that a particular person is successful due to the individual’s natural talents, although that can be true to a certain extent, Gladwell wants to disapprove that idea in people’s mind and wants the public to look at
Malcolm Gladwell is a canadian-english journalist, speaker, and bestselling author. In his bestselling book “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell discusses success and what patterns correlate with it. He states that how much time you put into a certain activity, specifically 10,000 hours, can put you in a elite level of proficiency. This in turn can give someone the tools to allow them the ability to be successful. Using historical citations, patterns, and real life examples, Gladwell forms his 10,000 hour rule. Due to his knowledgeable yet calm tone Gladwell seems to show credibility. His intended audience could be people who enjoy statistics or people who want to be successful and find possible ways to do so. Gladwell uses a logical appeal to show the patterns he has found through his studies of success. He supports his claim with overwhelming statistics which back it. He also uses similes to help better understand how he can relate the patterns he has found for the elite in a certain activity to other things. Foil is probably Gladwell's best means of convincing the reader to his thesis of the 10,000 hour rule. He uses Foil to compare success and we define to legends such as Bill Gates The Beatles and Bill Joy. Overall Gladwell uses Logos, similes, and foils to support his claim of the 10,000 hour rule.
Living in the United States can be hard. People need to deal with racism, sexism, and any other kinds of abuse. Even today, racism, prejudice, and stereotyping still happen. There is no way of stopping it. Immigrants have the hardest time moving to a different country because they need to know the language and the culture the country has to offer. However, the language barrier concerns most immigrants and frightens people. In the movie Crash by Paul Haggis, it displays the clash of different ethnicity and their challenge in the world. People were stereotyped, sexually abused, and judged. In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman describes a Hmong family struggling to help with her medical problem, but the language barrier between the family and the hospital causes conflicts. America offers a great challenge to its people because of the vast diversity of ethnicities.
Malcolm Gladwell’s overall purpose of Outliers: The Story of Success is that success is largely determined by an individual’s socioeconomic and sociocultural environment, and individual ambition, effort, or talent, are less significant, contrary to the societal notions associated with success. In other words, success is not something that someone randomly gained; success is earned through opportunities that develop dedication, interest, and skill over time. By doing this, will one become an outlier, or “something that is situated away or classed differently from a main or related body,” (Gladwell 3) that distinguishes great from good and best from great, as exemplified by “The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that the and his colleagues couldn’t find any “naturals”, musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did.” (Gladwell 39) Gladwell also acknowledges societal norms such that “All of the fourteen men and woman on the list above had vision and talent,” (Gladwell 62-63) to assert hard work, ability, et cetera can lead to success, but a social environment that offers such opportunities immensely increases the likelihood of success.
A quote from Bennett “Of all the countries in the world, we Americans have been the greatest destroyers of land of any race of people barbaric or civilized,” (Egan, 2006) makes your realize the self-inflicted destruction of the great planes. This book is not only about people who died but the ones who survived and lived on to tell their story directly to Egan.
Gladwell begins his examination of an outlier’s success by clarifying that his purpose of the text is to convince his readers that the successful did not become successful on their own. Intertwined with his purpose,
The results all show what mistakes were mistaken. This novel explains failure in a very organized way because of the fact that the protagonist does not believe in success. This quote "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars"(Pg.127) reveals that everyone is in the hole meaning people start off weak but only those who have hope has the passion of success. There are times when a person feels down or hurt and just wishes that everything in the world is gone. This is just a thought and a thought can never overcome a person. "I hope the snow covers everything so all the footsteps are silenced, and the whole city can be at peace,"(Pg.325) explains that people who have been stressed out just want silence. Failing is not the key in life because it just ends up trashing up someone's life apart if a person has no hope in him or herself. "Fairy tales only happen in movies," (Pg165) reveals that the world is trying to express to the audience that everything is running smoothly and nothing is a concern. Actually, this statement is incorrect because everyone is different and everyone does fail but most of the population knows that failing is just a mistake and it is not the end of the
Despite the fact that this was the age of Western imperialism and gunboat diplomacy, Korea failed to erect a large standing military and navy. Instead of uniting under the banner of protecting Korea’s sovereignty, some officials were more concerned with protecting their own privileges. Robinson wrote “The lack of consensus in domestic politics…inhibited any program to gather
Two authors that had shared there struggles with dealing with the concept of being transcultural and how trying to fit in made it very difficult, Amy (Tan) and David (Suzuki).Wrote About how being born as one culture and growing up in a different doesn’t mean you have to fit in letting yourself be who you can let you grow not only in your culture but you genetic one. For example, Amy Tan’s Fish Cheek helps understand a deeper meaning about trying to fit in with being an average; “American Girl.” The article is about a real story about how she wanted to change herself genetically so that she could look average and the person she was trying to impress would like her. As a child she didn't understand the importance of being unique and happy with your culture, her mother explained to her that; "But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame." Most people might find it easy by not trying to fit in but in reality we all want to fit in and be like everyone else. Furthermore, David Suzuki is another person who had struggled with accepting the idea of never fitting in he writes that; “I was born a Canadian.” He writes that he is proud that he is different through the struggles of dealing with not fitting in with either cultures he accepted that
In Chapter 8 and 9 of Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell exams some of the ways that Asian and American students learn math, arguing that some of the principles in the US education system should be reconsidered. I generally agree with Gladwell’s point of view. I believe in two ways, students ' principal spirit and the length of students’ studying, the US education system leaves much to be desired, though an overhaul is in progress.