Fascinating ideas on society’s view of talent, but concerns about the quality of fact-checking tarnished my enjoyment of the book.

What drew me to the book

I’ve been reading about making a career of what you like doing, which led to an exploration of the nature of talent and success. Also, I figured it was about time I read this very popular book by Malcolm Gladwell (whom I have never read before).

My thoughts on the book

In Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell uses case studies to support the contention that talent does not explain people who lie outside the norm (outliers) with respect to success. Instead, Gladwell suggests that opportunity, experience, a minimum IQ, social acumen, and legacy (cultural and linguistic) explain outliers. He does not discount hard work, but rather suggests that hard work alone is not enough–an idea that runs counter to cultural beliefs. Gladwell didn’t come up with the theories he discusses (as his extensive list of cited sources indicates), but he has put them together in a very accessible format.

The case studies include a number of well known people, groups, and incidents:

• The Beatles,
• Bill Gates,
• the founders of Sun Microsystems,
• the Hatfield-McCoy feud
• the stereotype that Asians are good at math,
• the safety record of Korean Airline/Korean Air

The very idea that culture is a factor in success is politically incorrect. I was satisfied that Gladwell used studies and statistics to support the ideas that he put forward in the book rather than speculation or prejudice. However, statistics and studies must be interpreted through one’s own world view. In some cases, I disagree with the interpretation.

Gladwell’s explanation for the stereotype that the Chinese are hardworking is that rice farming is more intensive on a daily basis than the type of farming that is done in the West. In particular, he suggests that during the winter most Western farmers hibernate and do very little work at all. I find the assertion about Western farming difficult to reconcile with what I’ve heard of homesteading from my extended family (some of whom continue to farm the same land today).

I found the chapter “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes” particularly interesting so I handed Outliers to the pilot in the household. After reading that chapter, he wasn’t inclined to read the rest of the book because of what he deemed inexcusable factual errors in the description of the landing scenario, the plane, and pretty much anything to do with the mechanics and procedures of aviation. He had no issues with Gladwell’s argument that cultural norms affecting the interaction between pilot, co-pilot, and air traffic control can contribute to plane crashes.

While none of the facts that were wrong (according to my subject matter expert) affected the theory, the fact that there were so many errors in a single chapter worries me. It calls into question the fact checking in other chapters. Unless you’re an expert on a particular topic, it’s difficult to catch inaccuracies so while the theories put forth in Outliers are interesting I wouldn’t use them in an argument without doing my own background research.

About the book author

Malcom Gladwell can be found online at his site Gladwell.com. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker and has published a number of books, including Outliers: The Story of Success, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

Find this book online (links go directly to book page)

Amazon.com * Amazon Canada * Amazon UK

The Book
Dead Silence: Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail by Bob Coen and Eric Nadler investigates the anthrax letter scares just after 9/11. Following the trail of the anthrax bacterium, the authors find themselves looking at the deaths of the accused perpetrators of the attacks as well as the deaths of leading anthrax researchers. The trail of anthrax as a biological weapon leads them from the US labs at Fort Detrick to Porton Down in the UK and on to South Africa and the former Soviet Union.

The Review

I’ve read quite a few books on biological warfare (it’s an interest since I use to work in biomedical research), so I was curious to see what there was to learn about the anthrax attacks of 9/11 after the relative silence of the mass media on the topic. By silence, I mean after the attacks (there was certainly enough hysteria-inducing media coverage during the attacks).

Although the book starts a bit slowly as it establishes the genesis of the authors’ investigation, it soon goes into interesting territory by pulling together disparate parts of the global anthrax story including:

• The incestuous relationships between anthrax biological warfare programs all over the world;
• The curious number of deaths among anthrax researchers worldwide;
• The ownership of major anthrax vaccine installations (if you think it’s in the hands of a Western government or corporation, think again);
• The resurgence in biological weapons research in the name of national security (a lot of it done at university facilities without proper oversight);
• The incredible amount of government and private dollars at stake in said research.

I was familiar with the Soviet Union aspect of anthrax bioweapon research, having read Biohazard by Ken Alibek (who, according to the authors, has now gone back to the former Soviet Union to start a pharmaceutical company–I don’t know about anyone else, but this makes me a little nervous considering his previous career running a Soviet biological weapons program), but I wasn’t familiar with the biological warfare program carried out against the black populace in South Africa as apartheid was falling apart.

The section of the book on “Project Coast” went a long way to explaining the distrust by the black populace of the origin and treatment of AIDS. Some of the opinions in Africa about AIDS that seem unreasonable or uninformed to North Americans make considerably more sense when given the context that biological warfare has been carried out on a racial basis in that region in the past.

The book also has a lot of information about the new wave of “biodefence” research, primarily in the US, which threatens to spark a new biological arms race. This is something that has gone largely unnoticed by the public and needs more exposure.

The authors have uncovered many questions but few answers. They successfully make the case that the story told to the public in the media was not the full story and may not have been the truth at all. This book is an interesting read. You may not want to know the information in this book, but you should know it.

You can find Dead Silence: Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail at amazon (US, Canada, UK) as well as other online and retail booksellers.

Addendum: I forgot to mention that this book has both an index and a list of additional reading material by chapter.

The marketing for The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor talks a lot about the newly discovered fossil Ida. In fact, all of the quotes on the back of the hard cover reference the fossil rather than the book. Add to that the copy on the inside flap of the book cover that talks almost exclusively about Ida and the author’s exclusive access to the scientists that discovered and studied her and you’re left with the impression that The Link is all about the Ida fossil. It’s not.

On the whole, The Link is a recap of what is known about life on Earth based on the fossil record with a focus on the evolution of primates. In that respect it is a decent book, though as a visual learner I would have liked more images for the different species discussed as it all became a blur of names after a while. As a book about Ida, The Link disappoints. The first 30 pages and the last 30 pages talk about Ida and the other 200 pages talk about the fossil record leading up to primates. The 200 pages are presented as “context” for the Ida fossil but I found that a bit of a stretch for a book marketed as being about one particular fossil. The 60 or so pages that do talk about Ida include a lot of repetitive information and don’t reveal much about the process of studying Ida.

I was also disappointed that the images included in the book are not referred to in the text making it difficult to find their context at times. In particular, there are several images of a computer generated three dimensional representation of Ida’s skeleton. Presumably this image was based on information collected from the Ida fossil. Since the fossil is flattened, it would have been interesting to find out how they came up with the measurements and other data needed to make a three dimensional model of the skeleton as the animal might have appeared in real life. Unfortunately, there was no mention of how the computer model was generated in the book.

On the whole, The Link is a good overview of the fossil record on primates and their ancestors. As a book on the Ida fossil, The Link simply does not have enough information on Ida to justify the marketing. Whether you enjoy The Link or not will depend largely on what you are expecting from the book. If you’re interested you can check out an interview with the scientist that discovered Ida.

You can buy this and other books by Colin Tudge at bricks and mortar stores as well as online booksellers like Amazon (US, Canada and UK).

Despite the gruesome sounding title, Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner is an interesting read. Author Frederick Zugibe is the former chief medical officer of Rockland County, New York and his co-author David L. Carroll has co-written over 30 books. Together they have created a very readable book that goes over ten medicolegal cases in Zugibe’s career. The accessible style along with the structure of the book (each chapter is a self-contained case) make this book read like a book of short stories, which is handy for nighttime reading.

Since this is written by a medical examiner, the focus is on the case from the time the medical examiner comes into the picture (usually at the crime scene) to the time the casue of death is determined. Although there is sometimes a brief sketch of how the case played out in court, since Zugibe is sometimes called as an expert witness, the legal aspect is only touched on lightly.

The last chapter is devoted to two cases that Zugibe examines from the point of expert commentator rather than ones he was involved in himself: the cases of JonBenet Ramsey and O. J. Simpson. This last chapter was a bonus for me, rather than a reason to pick up the book in the first place. I didn’t get as much out of the analysis of Simpson’s case as I did out of the Ramsey case. There were a number of surprising details on the Ramsey case that I had not seen mentioned in the media (though I have to admit I haven’t followed the case very carefully and only saw what made the international news).

When it comes to the technical details, I found the information very accessible. Although I’m familiar with the DNA technology, I was interested in the medical examiner’s job so I was happy to have the author take me through things like the standard procedure of examining a body, the methods of determining time of death, what to look for at the crime scene and what to ask the witnesses. This information is sprinkled throughout the cases as it comes up. If you’re already well versed in the procedures you’ll likely want to skim them, but if it’s new to you it’s explained in plain English and in short bursts.

I often look at other reviews, in this case on amazon.com since it is an older book I haven’t seen around book blogs. I was surprised to come across a review by the brother of  Joan D’Alessandro, a little girl whose death is covered in one of the chapters of the book. I was glad to see that the brother was pleased with the treatment of his sister’s case in the book.

If you like short mysteries or shows like CSI you’ll probably find this book of interest. You can find Dissecting Death at online sellers like amazon.com, amazon.ca, and amazon.co.uk as well as bricks and mortar stores.