Outlier is a noun which refers to: 1) something which is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body and/or; 2) a statistical observation that is markedly different from the others of the sample. By this definition Gladwell is an outlier, and it makes sense for him to write about other outliers, or those people we usually consider as extraordinarily “successful”, whether they be lawyers, nuclear physicists, rock stars, Silcon Valley billionaires or best-selling authors.

Typically, his explanation for their success is counter-intuitive, or different from what conventional wisdom says. Exceptional achievement is less about intelligence, ambition and other personal qualities than environment, opportunity and, yes, plain dumb luck.

And as always, Gladwell has the stats to back it up. And the compelling stories to illustrate his premises, like that of Chris Langan, one of the brightest persons on the face of the earth in Gladwell’s estimation, who ended up as a horse farmer in a tumbledown farm in rural Missouri. Along the way, he explains the connection between rice paddies and math proficiency, the ethnic theory of plane crashes and the generational legacy of violence. One of the most fascinating and what will probably stick in the public’s mind is Gladwell’s 10,000-hour theory of success. It takes about 10,000 hours, or approximately 10 years, for someone to attain an outstanding level of excellence, ascendancy and even fame in any given field. If he had put in 10,000 hours, and with a little luck and proper timing, any Joe Shmoe could have been Bill Gates.

It’s a most fascinating journey, and Gladwell tells it in his breezy, animated writing style. This is sure to be another bestseller and will add to the Gladwell mystique. As Time magazine points out, he is one of those clever people who actually looks clever. Consciously or not, he even has a mop of expansive, spirally hair reminiscent of Einstein.

But can Gladwell explain the phenomenal rise to power of Barack Obama ? Before he became president-elect he was just a first term Senator from Illinois, his experience certainly far short of the 10,000 hours prescribed to master the intricacies of Washington politics. A product of an interracial, cross-cultural marriage, he was abandoned by his father and raised for a time in a foreign, far-off (for him) land. While he was later raised by doting grandparents, his childhood or surrounding environment while growing up shows none of the Gladwellian legacies which would ensure his success. Yet, he made it to Harvard Law, and even became editor of the law review. But nothing in his background indicates that he would make it this far except through his own grit, intelligence, ambition and sense of destiny. He had luck on his side, certainly, but that would be it as far as external forces influenced the trajectory of his career.

Barack Obama is sui generis, or as described by Newsweek:

… [It] is increasingly clear that Obama, is, in fact, the unique product of a unique moment in America’s history… It took both the worst crisis and perhaps the best organized campaign in a century to break the color barrier, and generations may pass before American voters choose another black man, or a Latino or Asain or Jew, to be president.”

Barack Obama doesn’t easily fit into Gladwell’s analytical framework.
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Have you read my other popular articles like Libel on the Internet under Philippine Laws (Part 1), Libel on the Internet under Philippine Law (Part 2) or on Freedom of Expression?

Actually the title of his new book is “When You Are Engulfed in Flames”, the latest in his collection of first-person essays on his unconventional life. Quite apropos, as he has been described as a “furnace of creativity” when working on a book.

I discovered Mr. Sedaris by accident, when Powerbooks was giving away free books as a promo to loyal customers during the annual Manila bookfair and I received a copy of “Naked”. Sardonic and offbeat, I find Sedaris’ writing a cross between Mark Twain and Haruki Murakami, satirical and surreal snapshots of life as lovable loser, in the mould of Woody Allen. From pictures, he even resembles a youngish Mr. Allen.

I missed seeing him at a public reading and book-signing at Powerbooks Greenbelt two years ago. I didn’t know who he was then, and I was there for another book launch, scheduled earlier in the afternoon. They were ushering us out early to make way for Mr. Sedaris and I didn’t linger. Sayang. It would have been a treat to see and hear the man behind the stories.

According to the New York Times:

But at 51 he is as gentle and unassuming as his appearance would suggest. He is slight and on the short side, with a mild-mannered face and surprised eyes framed by short, graying hair. His are the unthreatening kind of looks, he said in his quiet, nasal voice, that cause people to come up to him on the street and talk to him.

Sedaris shares a Paris home with his long-time boyfriend, Hugh Hamrick, having moved from New York City to France ten years ago to escape his growing celebrity status.

For fanatical Sedaristas, his new book offers a change, as it shifts focus away from his growing up experiences and his loopy family to his present domesticated life with Hamrick. Sederis describes the two of them “as an aging monogamous couple”. Not that it’s any less funny, as few can see the bizarre and ridiculous in the mundane as well as Sedaris. Critics have praised this latest collection as revealing an “older, wiser, smarter and meaner” Sedaris.

The present compilation of essays revolve around themes which I can relate to, death and dying. And his attempts to deal with his own mid-life crisis and intimations of mortality, including an apparently successful attempt at quitting smoking.

In ‘Memento Mori’, he buys a human skeleton as a gift to Hugh, choosing between two available items “one a full-grown male and the other a new-born baby” at a French flea market. Settling on the adult skeleton, he brings it home where it constantly reminds him, quite literally, that he is going to die. Admitting that “even as a child I was fascinated by death” he tells of his experiences in a medical examiner’s office in ‘The Monster Mash’, finding the humorous and absurd in the macabre.

He tells a poignant tale of his unusual friendship with a convicted French pedophile in ‘The Man in the Hut’.

The best stories here deal with his life as an American abroad, and Sedaris has a keen eye for detail and dialogue, as funny, perceptive and mordant as Paul Theroux. The centerpiece is the book’s longest essay ‘The Smoking Room’, chronicling his history of smoking and other addictions, and the lengths he went to in order to quit, including living in Japan for a short period, hoping that a change in environment would help. Consider the substitutes that he used to quell the craving for cigarettes, macadamia nuts

and these strange little crackers I’ve been buying lately. I can’t make out the list or ingredients, but they taste vaguely of penis.

He succeed, both in quitting smoking and coming out with a gem of a book that, as the cliché goes, you can’t put down.

Listen to David Sedaris reading an excerpt from his new book.
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Have you read my other popular articles like Libel on the Internet under Philippine Laws (Part 1), Libel on the Internet under Philippine Law (Part 2) or on Freedom of Expression?