Malcolm Gladwell, : The Story of Success. Read the Introduction, Chapters 1-4, 6, 8-9, and the Epilogue.

1. Why do hockey players born earlier in the year gain not just a short-term but a cumulative advantage that grows over time?

2. In accounting for success, what is the most common explanation offered in American society? How does Gladwell challenge that explanation?

3. What is Gladwell’s rule of 10,000 hours, and why is this relevant to success? Why were the Beatles and in a position to log their hours?

4. What is “practical intelligence” and how is it related to “concerned cultivation”? How do practical intelligence and concerned cultivation help explain why J. Robert Oppenheimer and Chris Langdon, despite each having IQs commonly labeled “genius”, had such different life outcomes?

5. What implications do the experiments on propensity for aggression have for free will? If culture influences behavior—as was the case for Southerners in these experiments—does that mean that people lack free will?

6. According to Gladwell, what is the connection between growing up in a culture that historically cultivated rice paddies and students’ performance on math tests?

7. If Gladwell is right about what predicts math performance, how could someone use that information to improve their skills? Suppose someone did just that. What would then be explaining success—culture? Free will? Both? Neither? Explain your answer.

8. Why does the KIPP program succeed? What is the “bargain” that its students strike?

9. Across the different chapters in Gladwell’s book, what is the role of free will in his explanation for success? What is the role of nature?