Outliers_ Cultural Legacy. (Blog 2)

 

Have you ever wondered why most of businessmen in our country hail from northwestern states like Gujarat? Why are most of bureaucrats from Bihar, UP? or why do many from South Indian state of Kerala enter into medicine or hospitality fields? Why are many Punjabis’ abroad or in entertainment industry?

These are certain trends seen over years. These can't be explained from individual point of view, rather they follow legacies and have inherited cults to do so.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book ‘Outliers’ explains how legacy affects on the society in long run. Not just who we are but also where we are born affects what we do.

America one of the most developed countries of the world is no exception, When we observe the mass shooting trends in USA, we find most of them concentrated in Southern USA. What can be the possible reasoning for it?,  Well, it can be traced back to the history of the state.

In Southern USA, centuries ago most people lived in herds and reared animals then hunted for the prey, and fought to protect their animals from wild animals as well as other tribesmen. They needed to be aggressive to protect their identity and livelihood. Now centuries after, in metropolitan era still the maximum gun shots, land disputes and violences to be spread over this part of USA.

 

Even with similar up bringing, education and lifestyle today, South America seems to be more prone to violence than north and it owes to its legacy.

    

    The other strange pattern which is observed is between plane crashes in Western and eastern world. How can we justify it? Is it due to climate, lack of training or technology used? it is rather traced back to ‘communication’ cultures of eastern and western world. A plane usually has two pilots a captain and a junior pilot, they are generally meant to assist each other so as to prevent any tragedy.

Now when we talk about eastern culture we see a form of ‘subordinate culture’ where the language, your ethics and etiquettes to address a senior really matters. So, it was found that in case of any technical problem and mistake from captain the junior pilot was not really able to boldly convey his opinion to the captain as if, “Hey captain! ‘this’ and ‘that’ is wrong and we should do this.” and this factor really increases the possibility of accidents.

On contrary the western culture is ‘transmission oriented’ where it is the responsibility of speaker to convey message completely to the receiver. This usually helps to make early decisions and prevent casualties. Asian legacies like Korea, Japan follows strict seniority principles and these ultimately makes many differences.

Other general belief is that Asians are better at Maths than Western people. Are there any supernatural powers behind this? Not really! when we move centuries back we would come to know that in Asia most people wear ‘paddy growers.’ Paddy is a crop which is really hard to grow and requires lot of efforts. It is a saying in Asia that:

“No one who can raise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.”

These people would work hard throughout the year to make their harvest, while the Western people usually consumed fruits and berries and had long hibernation sleeps during winters. Well one may wonder what and how does it connects to being good at maths? So, let me tell that it does.

When it comes the general trend in maths, It is more about attitudes than the IQs. Study shows that the average time of Asian student to try upon a difficult math problem is higher than that of Western student. Even the Asians are known for the persistence in long sitting time on western campuses. And all this can be owed back to their paddy field legacies.

Now, just read  ‘1878543’ and try to recall it in 20 seconds. A similar study conducted on group of people from Asian countries and rest shows that few of people from west are able to recall it at once, while most of the Asians can do it. The reason again lies not in the IQs but in the language. The number names in English are usually long to pronounce and recall, while that of Asian languages like Chinese and Korean are shorter and thus easy and quick to pronounce.

Hence on an average it makes a difference of several seconds. Even when 11 is ‘eleven’ and 12 is ‘twelve’ in English which needs to be recalled and learnt by students. The Asian languages have more logical number like ‘Ten one’ and ‘Ten two’, this not only makes it easier to recall but also simplifies a calculations.

This means at an age of 6 the western student is almost a year behind his Asian counterpart.

 

   Moreover, there lie differences in same region but depends upon the family in which you are brought up in. A major event is the vacations. In the west there is a trend of long vacations, this is a major cause to increase the disparities among the rich and the poor children.While the rich children at the end of break are more better-off, more in skills and learnt farther than their fellow students who come from poor families.

  Thus a person is a product of opportunities and opportunities come from Legacy you belong to. The family you are born to, your schooling, your friends, parenting, cultures, ancestors, language, country, continent all matters to build your personality.

Again there are outliers among outliers. It is equally true that finally your attitude matters. At individual levels there are certain examples of people who act as exceptions and make history, but on the largest scale, patterns are observed, those stories can be traced back to your opportunities and legacies. All in all-

“By compiling read with an important message: by understanding better what makes people Outliers, we should be able to produce more of them.”

And that’s what Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’ is all about.