Chunk 1-"Accumulative Advantage"

In the first Chunk from the best-selling novel "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell gives a introduction on how researchers analyzed the understanding of health. He gives this analysis in his introduction to get his readers to know his reasoning for the understanding of peoples success. Throughout the first chapter, Gladwell uses anecdotes, facts, and statistics to prove his point on how some sports athletes become as successful as they do because of what sociologist call "accumulative advantage". It was believed that in Canada as well as other countries when the sports season starts, those that try out our only able to try out if their birthday and age makes the cutoff date for their players. Gladwell found that the better players birthday was between January and March which was near the cutoff date showing that those who birthday was towards the end of the year barley had a chance to be in a elite sports team.The children who are born in the beginning of the year are older than those who are born towards the end. Meaning they are a few more months mature which economists Kelly Bedhard and Elizabth Dhuey say makes a "huge effect". Even if the players are average players by being older and put into elite teams they practice more making them better and they have better coaches making the players stronger and better. Gladwells implication of the sports around the world is that " the systems we set up to determine who gets ahead aren't particularly efficient". He also states ,"we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement." Gladwells solution was that we need to acknowledge the matter of the cutoff dates and perhaps setup two or three hockey leagues divided by month of birth that way everyone has a equal chance of being successful.


Clarification: What happens to the talented players whose birthdays are at the end of the month? When are they able to have a fair chance to try and make the elite teams?

Application: How does the authors theories and facts effect those whose birthdays are towards the end of the year ? How does his solution help them ?

Obama's Visit to Iraq

In the article from TIME Magazine "Obama's Visit to Iraq: A Page from Bush's Playbook" by Bobby Gosh, it was said that Obama made a unexpected trip to Baghdad to speak with the troops and Iraqis some what how George Bush had once done as President. Gosh states ,"Surprise stops on presidential journeys became the norm during the Bush era, with the U.S. engaged in two foreign wars ...Baghdad was the wrong choice for Obama. Iraq is Bush's war..Obama's main contribution to Iraq has been to criticize the war while on the campaign trail, and then to begin drawing down the U.S. troop presence as soon as he became President." During Obama's presidential campaign he made promises and statements to take the troops out of Iraq and put them in Afghanistan because being in Iraq was not the right place to be. However this can be confusing with him making unexpected trips to iraq telling the troops there is lot of work still to be done. Gosh also states "Iraqis saw nothing in Obama's visit to distinguish him from Bush..." Hopefully these comparisons wont continue in Obamas presidency.


Clarification: If Obama claim that the war in Iraq is the wrong war, why did he tell the troops and Iraqis there is still a lot to be done?

Application: In what ways does Obama's actions differ from Bush's actions as president?