Sociology is Cool!

I studied sociology in college. It was my major. Most people in the Arts and Sciences were studying psychology and I was the odd duck. To me it is more interesting to study how groups of people work together, to look at the "big picture" rather than studying the individual. I haven't been in college for sixteen years now, but sociology still fascinates me. Sudhir Venkatesh is my favorite sociologist! How many people can say they have a favorite sociologist? Malcolm Gladwell is described as a pop sociologist, so I guess that means he is the Dr. Joyce Brothers of the sociology world. Well, I love him too. I've read his other books and enjoyed them as well but Outliers is my favorite so far. This book talks about the superstars of the world, the richest men, the best hockey players, the computer geniuses like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Gladwell tries to find an explanation for their success-- something to disprove the "self-made man" myth. Superstar folks like that are called "outliers" because they are apart from the norm, standouts. Gladwell digs back into their pasts-- I mean way back in some cases, like hundreds of years-- to figure out what made them into outliers. It tries to answer questions like "why are the Chinese so good at math?" and "why are most awesome hockey players born in the first quarter of the year?". Very fascinating and a very fast read. I listened to this one, read by the author himself and enjoyed that very much.