Humorous Wedding Essay

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In my high school Philosophy class, the teacher recounted a story of a doctor who visited a remote village in Africa in order to provide medical services to those in need, and happened to witness a story of certain value. Here is a brief summary, as I remember it. In the village, the doctor found a wealthy young man, who was about to make a proposal to a poor, ugly and daunted woman. Now, it was a ritual for grooms to offer cows to his future brides’ parents in the village and the number of cows depended on the desirability of the bride. The numberMost received two. The new groom offered 9 cows – to the poorest, most disregarded and unwanted woman of the town. The town found her ugly, daunted and subdued. The doctor left the village and returned a few years later. He was invited to the young man’s dinner to find that daunted and ugly bride had turned into an elegant, educated spouse who spoke multiple languages. The transformation was such that the doctor thought at first it was a different woman. Then he thought the groom forced her to learn manners and get an education. But the young man’s reply left …show more content…

Gladwell explains a concept of thresholds. It is an idea that once you are above certain IQ, or any innate ability, what distinguishes successful people from people who fail is opportunity. Gladwell provides data showing that while an IQ of 115 is what is needed to graduate college, IQ levels become relatively unimportant after this threshold (79), and a person with an IQ of 130 has as much chance of winning the Nobel Prize as someone with an IQ of 180 (80). However, another way of phrasing this concept thresholds would be: if you don’t have the minimal innate faculty, you cannot succeed above a certain level. It would be extremely difficult for people with an IQ of 100 to educate themselves beyond a Bachelor’s

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