SUSAN BOYLE AND OUTLIERS.

SUSAN BOYLE AND OUTLIERS. I posted here a week ago about Malcolm Gladwell’s book OUTLIERS and wrote that: “Gladwell goes on to argue that a myriad of acquired skills explain the difference that social class makes. He takes as an example one brilliant man from a humble background. who has not achieved what he could. Gladwell says: ‘He never had a parent teach him…how to reason and negotiate with those in positions of authority. He didn’t learn entitlement. He learned constraint.’” Now the discovery of the brilliant singer Susan Boyle has illustrated Gladwell’s argument. How did her talent go unnoticed? One factor is that a learning disability made her socially awkward, as Mary Schmich argues here, writing as well about her own sister.