If you have about 5 minutes, listen to the above video with Malcolm Gladwell’s explanation of success and the importance of sometimes overlooked factors. If you just want to hear Gladwell, skip to about three minutes in (2:50 to be exact).
Sensible, well spoken, smart. I couldn’t have said it better. And I love that concept of 10,000 hours. I’m definitely passing that on to my kids…
He’s the author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and his latest release, Outliers.
How does all of this apply to families?
Well, listen to the way he explains the value of savvy and practical intelligence – an expanded concept of IQ and social intelligence versus pure intelligence. Fascinating.
Yep. After listening to him, I think I’ll toss all those educational CDs* and, instead, focus on teaching my kids how to figure out how to get their point across and how to decode institutions. Hmmm…yeah…I like it.
In all seriousness, it seems to me that it’s yet another area of life where we need balance and reasonableness. Parents who focus too much on academics and test scores don’t necessarily guarantee success for their kids. In fact, they might just stress them out before they even leave high school. Perhaps the message here is to let the kids have more fun – to live a bit more freely and experience those playground battles for themselves.
Most of all, to practice, practice, practice – whether it’s math, a musical instrument or football. Practice might not make perfect, but it seems to provide a more likely path to success.
.
________________________
*Full disclosure: We don’t actually have any educational CDs anymore, but we had them years ago when the kids were younger.
Written by SoapB
2 comments ↓
That was very interesting. Thanks for giving it some attention.
You know, we try so hard to be good parents. The children age and move on and you want to be able to say “I did the best I could”, and then you hear things like what was just shared in this clip and you feel like you may actually be able to deliver on this wish. To teach your children the value of getting their point across is absolute gold. I think many of us do this without thinking about it. Imagine how much better it would be if we DID think about it.
Sorry for rambling.
Chucks last blog post..Fellowship of the Häagen-Dazs
I agree, though saying mastery isn’t there until 10,000 hours are there is a bit arbitary, overall I agree with his take.
Leave a Comment