Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers is an outlier in itself. Gladwell effectively tackles the broad topic of success in a truly unique book. He challenges the common belief that success is self-made, or earned by hard work and dedication. Gladwell recognizes these as factors of success, but he asserts that most success comes from extremely rare opportunities.
According to Gladwell, a data trend shows that to "master" something, it takes 10,000 hours of practice. I'm convinced Gladwell must have already written 20,000 hours, because this book is that great. Click on that obnoxious link under the cover. Do it. He uses such an immense variety of topics to further his argument. Did you know a majority of successful hockey players were born right after their age cut-off in youth hockey? And why are Asians so good math? I'm sure you'll find an example that appeals to you in this easy read.
His use of case studies really makes this book a light and easy read. He's very explicit in his argument. In fact, he reveals it in the beginning of his book. However his information and style are so captivating, the reader is always left wanting more. He doesn't just state facts and cause-and-effect relationships. He catches your attention in the first chapter, and maintains it until the end.
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
-John F. Kennedy
In one day, terrorism took 2,996 lives. Waves of physical, social, and economic devastation expanded from the epicenter of Lower Manhattan, caused by an unprecedented act of terror. Ten years and three months later, such an emotional event begs the question, can we ever forgive... wait... urrr... what's their name?
Could you imagine? Forgetting the name of the most-talked terrorist group in history? Al-Qa'ida. How catastrophic of consequences would follow if George W. Bush, or any other government official, stumbled over those three syllables. Yeah, it's a what if, but it's a great illustration of the power behind a name.
Here's a lesson embedded into my brain, courtesy of my brothers. People like hearing their names. It's nice being greeted with a name instead of a hey. Believe it or not, calling that special someone by that arrangement of letters given to them at birth, is more effective than a simple babe. Hearing a name stimulates your brain, a fact that has been determined by numerous brain scans.
Is he telling us that forgetting terrorist organization #1's name may hurt their feelings?
Yeah. Pretty much. Even though saying a name may show some level of respect at a time when disrespect is the only thing manifesting in your thoughts, at least remember the name. For everyone's sake.
I find it particularly interesting that JFK said this quote. President in the early 1960's, I believe he had the greatest lasting impact in matters of forgiveness. The Peace Corps started in 1961, and has since sent over 200,000 Americans to 139 countries. Service is the perfected form of forgiveness.
A recent experiment that has been thoroughly analyzed for error, shows subatomic neutrinos arriving in Italy one 17-millionth of a second earlier than light would. If neutrinos are truly breaking the speed of light, the backbone of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity completely breaks down; leaving a huge hole in a scientific concept that has been validated hundreds of times throughout this past century.
My primary viewing audience is our first block composition class; however, I really had my physics class in mind as my intended audience. Relativity is not a common discussion topic for high school students (at least where I sit in Block 1…), so ideally this visual essay is targeted to AP Physics students.
My goal in creating this essay was to portray an apparent fault in science from a light-hearted perspective, allowing me to even poke fun at the situation. My purpose was to impose my argument, that without science, people are left bewildered in the decision-making process, and have to rely heavier on reason and faith for their answers.
Claim: This is not the first instance of scientific fact crumbling right before us, but such a immense loophole in Einstein’s relativity is sparking unexpected social consequences from a loss of faith in science. Scientists are completely flabbergasted, while the average Joe Schmo most likely doesn’t see this changing anything in his life, leaving him feeling just fine. It leaves society in a state of confusion, wondering who can we turn to when science doesn’t have good enough answers for us?
Reasons: Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity was first proposed in 1905, and since has been expanded outward from the kernel that nothing can be faster than light’s constant velocity. Apparently, neutrinos thumb their nose at light. Consequences of this may allow time to flow in reverse. “Neutrino-based messages could reach recipients before they were sent” (Mone). Life wouldn’t necessarily be a series of causes and effects, but rather a series effects and causes.
The implications of this finding are not going to cause any drastic changes in technology any time soon. To the average citizen of the world, all it may mean to them is Einstein was wrong about something. Big deal. Relativity suggests effects of time slowing and length contraction at speeds near the speed of light, so it’s very impractical in everyday life. It’s not everyday that people fly around at 299,792,458 meters per second, so why should people not feel fine? Particle scientists on the other hand, are running frantic. CERN, the credible institution that first announced this finding, shared all the data with other scientists, in hopes to find a source of error. The math has been checked. It’s been retested several times in several particle accelerators. Scientists are scrambling for explanations, with no solutions yet.
Thinking of traveling faster than light could drive someone mad, while giving us a whole additional way to look at the universe. People act off a combination of science, faith and reason. Can this decision-making triangle prove to be stable if one vertex proves to be a dead end? People are left waiting for the next Einstein, turning to religion, or trying to make reasons for this data point from personal reasons alone (good luck with that).
Warrants:
Neutrinos are indeed traveling faster than light, it’s not just a flawed experiment
A flaw in a widely accepted, 100-year-old scientific theory is startling
Effects should always follow a cause
One data point can disprove an entire theory
2.
I chose the water theme for my Animoto video because the blue pattern is calm in comparison to several of the others. Fire theme looked sweet, but it didn’t fit my purpose of advancing my argument in a light-hearted way. The world is not actually ending…
The thumbnail for my essay is the image of a news broadcast. I chose that to be the first photo seen, because it really expresses to the audience that breaking the speed of light is actually a pretty huge deal. If you don’t know anything about relativity, at least you would find out that defying Einstein is newsworthy.
My second photo (embedded below), is rather a collection of a couple pictures I added together. It’s a way of expressing the news heading in explicit numbers and pictures, in turn avoiding wordiness. It’s a simple inequality, which goes along rather well with my math/sciency topic, and my physics class audience I had in mind while I created this visual. Essentially, parts in an atom can move faster than permitted by the intergalactic speed limit sign that just chills in outer space. The rainbow just represents the wavelengths of lights captured by the human eye, so yeah, light.
My third, fourth and fifth pictures were meant to be considered as a series, and is an example of me, err… trying to be funny (let’s judge my success on class laughter). Essentially, Einstein is being immature in this situation, and is requiring pictures to prove he is not at fault. The particle collider at CERN responds in a cleaver way, by actually replying with an image of a simulated collision. So, naturally, Einstein drops the f-bomb on the CERN scientists. The black and white pictures of Einstein add to the credibility of Einstein’s “statements”. If they were color renditions, it would have been totally out of place for an early 20th century photo, and therefore it wouldn’t been realistic for Einstein to be in them at all. But considered as a three-part series, it’s obvious that Einstein is wrong, and in effect help convince the audience because it’s funny (hopefully…).
The next series of images important to my argument persists of a ambiguous human having no place to go. The person/maze is colored black, which color theory suggests is a representation of mystery. The maze is a metaphor for the answers of life. All the answers that are often accepted from scientific inputs are not even in sight according to the man on the ladder. The middle of the mazes are lighter in contrast to the entrances, suggesting answers will lead to greater enlightenment. The figure is only identifiable as a human, and is almost hesitant to start the maze and look for the answers, which I think everyone in my audience could relate to, at least a little bit.
3.
I chose “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M. because I think it really describes the mood neutrinos set. Scientists are pulling their hair out, thinking of every possible reason for faster-than-light neutrinos. This fast-paced search is similar to the chaotic tempo and random lyrics of this up-beat song. But if we look at average American Joe Schmo, what difference does it make? It may be the end of the world of science we know, but he’s not sweating it. If I were to have chosen a different song, this unique juxtaposition of frantic acceptance would have been lost.
The song’s mood isn’t a heavy-screamo/anarchy one, but rather an upbeat and almost eager tone, considering it’s the end of the world. The song’s nature fits with the idea that scientists are excited to find new ways of explaining the universe, but aren’t having a bread riot to demand the decapitation of Relativity quite yet. Nobody thought we had all the answers, but maybe we’re wrong in our scientific answers up to this point.
Other lyrics included in the song excerpt are “A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.” I don’t want to over stretch this and say he had a prophetic vision of the downfall of Einstein, but these lyrics do tie into my argument. He’s being offered solutions and alternatives, what he even considers “a tournament of lies.” Wherever he is in life, he’s being offered alternatives. Maybe they’re from science, maybe from religion, maybe from just some people he knows. But he’s declining these solutions. The lead singer of R.E.M. is also stuck outside the maze of enlightenment, as several of my images portray.
Gertrude, I don't know how to tell you this, but something needs to be said. We've known each other for three, fantastic years now. You have taken me to countless significant places in my life. You've always been there for me; pointing me in the right direction, sticking by my side, and leading me home safely. You've been considered as one of my best friends, nay, even a family member. You know my address by heart circuit board. See, there I go, That's exactly it. You're a GPS. We can't be together anymore. Remember that chilly January night when you told be to "Turn right on Arthur Street in 150 feet", and I told you to *hehem* "Shut your whore mouth"? You have 512 Megabytes of memory. Of course you remember. But I remember too, and this is just one thing time has proved irreconcilable. That's why you have to go, Gerdy. You have to go far away. That's why I just searched for the most fuel-efficient route to the Atlantic Ocean. This is our last ride together. Maybe some shark will rip out your circuit board, just like you tore out my <3.
Over the past month or so, I've been dissecting Seth Godin's blog. I encourage you to check out at least one post at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/. Look for the bald head, and you've reached your destination.
Godin is making me think like an economist and a marketer, and I love it. He's really good at breaking down complex business concepts into digestible, simplified pieces. We have something special. Not really, but his latest post was titled "Unexpected Turbulance" (not like I experienced that in the past 24 hours, but I definitely did), and I really understood what he was talking about.
I have come to the conclusion that I'm slow. I wish I did this earlier. But, when I reached to click on the "New Post" button on my blog, something caught my eye. Monetize. I like that word, because it's like money. So in the spirit of marketing, I just added advertisements to my blog... I think. We'll see if it all works out, but it would be interesting to see if somebody out there really thinks the minimal (but ever so precious) blog traffic I receive is worth getting an advertising income. I'll literally keep you posted on how my little marketing experiment works out. Maybe I'll earn so much, I don't have to worry about those college tuition bills looming around the corner. Maybe I'll earn a penny.
I was a risk taker/ride warrior/daredevil. Actually, so much so, my AOL Instant Messenger screen name was Daredevil7321, and had been my email address until I found a more sophisticated fit... Three months ago. How did it all start? Quinn Labowitch, this is a shoutout to you. Remember when you used to have a boat on Gray's Bay? Yep, we were hardcore tubers. You're mom called me a daredevil, and I wanted it to stick. It didn't. It's a total lady-slayer of a name. Right?
Well, I've come to realize it has become less and less applicable to my life. What risks do I really take? I try not to cross lines. If the benefits of a successful risk outweigh the effects of a failure risk does that mean I should take it? Usually, my answer is no. Since elementary school, I've consistently become more shy.
But this year, forget it. I'll show up in a tuxedo and
if I want to. I'll participate in Mr. Wayzata and probably make a fool of myself. I'll invest $2 in a cheetah print bow tie.
A week from today, I'll be in Colorado, skiing down mountains. Talk about risks. This trip, I'm going to ski down the back of a mountain in an un-groomed bowl. More to come... but enjoy the last days of school this year until I get back to you.
