Achievement Is Talent Plus Preparation

Quotations/passage from the text with page number

Summary

Analyze and React

“Achievement is talent plus preparation”(chapter 2, page 38)

Gladwell is saying talent isn’t all you need to be successful.

This quote fits in well with this chapter. In the second chapter we can clearly see Gladwell’s point of view. He wants to let the reader know that not every successful person had a ton of talent, they just had a ton or 10,000 hours of practice. This quote maybe short but it’s just enough to stick in the reader’s mind.

“The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practices surfaces again and again in studies of expertise.” (chapter 2, Pages 39-40)

This simply tells us in almost every case, you can find out each success has came from hours and hours of practice and hard work. Studies show that tons of practice has led to “expertise.”

This is another saying the book restates the authors opinion and/or belief. He shows his audience that experts have had 100,000 hours of practice or even more. I think that gladwell continues to further his view to influence the readers to believe what he has to say.

“But a belief in work ought to be a thing of beauty.”(chapter 8, page 239

This quote is saying that work is good and could also mean that work can create beauty.

I think Gladwell could have included this quote to makeup for stereotyping Asians and their hard work.stereotyping can turn the reader off of the author’s beliefs even if they might be true. This quote is one of many that has something to do with how success can affect things.

“Similarly the pioneer of public education in Massachusetts, Horace Mann, believed that working students too hard would create a “ most pernicious influences upon character and habits…. Not infrequently is health itself destroyed by over-stimulating the mind.”(chapter 9, page 253)

This is saying that in most cases, over-stimulating your mind well mess minds up. The brain is meant to work, but in his eyes, not too much. So therefore, going to school for a longer period of time will affect students in a worse way, rather than better.

Gladwell throws in this quote to show that there are many different beliefs to this topic. Some believe that more school time equals more success and others believe that less school time helps the mind and the body recuperate from working the brain. Gladwell includes both points of views and reflects on each. This I think gives the reader a clearer understanding of what Gladwell’s opinion is and will help the reader to decide what they agree with.

“This idea--- that effort