Note: Please use your own words to answer the questions. In other words, don’t copy and paste from Gladwell’s chapter. If you do quote from Gladwell, be sure to use quotation marks to signal which words are Gladwell’s words.

1)      What is the explanation for Bill Joy’s wild success that Gladwell intends to debunk? What is the explanation that Gladwell offers, and what does Gladwell do to try making his explanation persuasive? In other words, what support does Gladwell provide for his claims? It’s okay to list. Try culling from the whole chapter.

2)      Gladwell discusses a study conducted by K. Anders Ericsson and two of his colleagues. What was the study’s purpose, and how was it conducted? What did the study conclude about talent, “naturals,” and “grinds”?

3)      How does Gladwell connect the Ericsson study to what he has already discussed in “The Matthew Effect” concerning hockey players and cutoff dates? What significance does he draw from this connection?

4)      What is “the 10,000-hour rule”?

5)      What is the “more complete picture of the path to success” that Gladwell argues we receive when “we put the stories of hockey players and the Beatles and Bill Gates together”?

6)      What is interesting about the list of the seventy-five richest people in history? What significance does Gladwell draw from this observation? How is this example similar to the example of the hockey players that Gladwell uses in “The Matthew Effect”? How is this example different?

7)      How does the point Gladwell makes about the richest seventy-five people in history set up his point about the accidents of birth and place as they relate to the most successful people in the personal computer industry?

8)      Explain why the following statement is a mischaracterization of what Gladwell argues in this chapter: “In the chapter ‘The 10,000-Hour Rule,’ Malcolm Gladwell argues

that practice makes perfect.’” Pay close attention to the meanings of words.

9)      If you could “steal” one writing or arguing technique that Gladwell uses in this chapter, what would it be and why?