Tuesday write

Malcom Gladwell is a very well educated man with a lot of knowledge. He has the mind set which makes the best of every operotunity. For example The Norden bombsight, was not very accurate at the begining. Technology, which was relatively primitive back then, forced the bombsite to complex and only able to integrate a few variables. However, technology soon improved and the bombsite became more accurate and effective, as people and technology became more sophisticated and accurate.




Gladwell's research continues to peek the interest of many people through his interesting articles and compelling pieces. Gladwell's theory of "The 10,000 hour rule" is very powerful and his evidence draws in followers as he is able to examine the ways of our society and generalize it with one rule. I feel as if this rule has given me an entirely different outlook on life. With his evidence and examples such as Bill Gates or Bill Joy, I can truly see that hard work and determination is the key to being successful in life.
One other topic of Gladwell's research that I found interesting was his belief that everything deserves a closer look, from spaghetti to the choices people make. Everything is not as black and white as it seems, there is always a gray area. Life is more complex than what it appears on the surface and society should not take anything for granted.
A phenomenon Gladwell has encouraged me to take a closer look at is Zenyatta's loss at the Breeder's Cup Classic. I have long been fascinated with horses as my father and I have been involved with horse racing for many years. In fact, my father, a jockey of eighteen years, also shares the same curiosity of Zenyatta's loss. Zenyatta, a prodigy of the century, clearly was the favorable horse, yet lost by a nose. At first I assumed that she had lost because she tried to make her move from too far behind. But now, after looking back on the race, many other factors came into the loss. First, the surface she was running on was not the typical synthetic surface she was used to, she was on tapeta. Additionally, she battled unfavorable conditions as she was trailing horses kicking up dirt in her face. After the race, Zenyatta's jockey, Mike Smith, took blame for the loss saying "he shouldn't have let her get so far behind at the beginning with those conditions".