In the first section, a point is made that when one is born dramatically effects the placement in academics, sports, and many other activities. Being born in September is helpful to being placed in higher classes, because being born during this month gives me more time to learn the material. I am also older than 80% of my peers. Also, there is a certain point where one's IQ plateaus, meaning that after a certain level of intellect, nothing else higher matters. One's opportunity also dramatically affects one's success. If one is never presented opportunity, one can never get any better than their peers.
This information is very relative to my performance in school and the goal of my personal research. This class was given to me as an opportunity, an opportunity which I have seized. I was admitted to take the placement test to get into this course because of my academic success, which is directly related to my birth month, September, which is a prime date for academic success. And that isn't even half of the information in the book. There is still plenty more, but none of it I can directly identify to my topic of research or my admission into this class.
Information such as, those who work the hardest have the greatest success, which was touched upon in the KIPP chapter and the rice paddy chapter. The students at KIPP were presented an opportunity and seized it, being forced into an environment where they must work harder than the average individual and achieved more successful results than other students. The rice paddy farmers need to work extremely hard to have the same crop upkeep as wheat or other plant farmers because there is so much work that is involved in the process of rice farming. These individuals work extremely hard and achieve great results for their work.
In conclusion, The Outliers was an extremely informative and entertaining read, and has helped me better understand myself, my project, and other people.
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