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school, Langan could walk into a test in a foreign language class, not having studied at
all, and if there were two or three minutes before the instructor arrived, he could skim
through the textbook and ace the test, (Gladwell 71). What Gladwell is trying to show
through this story is that success is determined on the amount of intelligence a person has
and that working hard has no correlation to success. Nowhere in the book does Gladwell
make any reference to a story of someone who had to work hard to do well. Gladwell is
smart. He knew what he was doing when he chose to only pick answers that would
support his argument. If he had presented stories that show hard work can also contribute
to a childs later success, readers would have had another side to consider.
Not only does Gladwell try to persuade readers to agree with him by cherrypicking his examples, he also pretends to acknowledge the other side. This makes
readers think they have been told about what happens to those who are not as intelligent,
but what readers have really read is a collection of words that appears to have the
meaning of addressing the other side, but when the words are reread it is clear that the
other side of the argument of success is never mentioned. Gladwell carefully chose his
words to make it seem like at some point he was sharing an unbiased opinion: The
Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1, (Gladwell XIV). This is the title of the chapter in which
Gladwell talks about how intelligent people with high IQs become more successful. The
carefully selected word trouble makes readers think at first glance that the author is
going to say something that is wrong with geniuses or why they will be in trouble later in
life, but the chapter never says anything about what the trouble with them is.
At one point Gladwell starts to say that IQ only matters up to a certain point.
Many readers become excited by this statement because they think that finally Gladwell
is acknowledging the underdogs, but when the reader continues on they realize that what
is really being said is that after a child achieves the genius ranking on the IQ test, the
child has nowhere to go but stay constant. There might be a slight variation in numbers
for different child geniuses, but the numbers stop mattering because after a certain
point all anyone sees is that the child is smart enough to be considered a genius and
that is all that matters. A 120 and a 140 are almost equivalent according to Gladwell
because both these numbers are beyond average. Success and IQ, to Gladwell, never stop
having a correlation. The only thing that stops mattering is how high the number goes
after 120. Gladwell never recognizes that IQ may have nothing to do with success at all,
even if a childs IQ is 70, they still have the potential for success. Readers might not
understand this after reading this chapter because once they see the words theres a
catch they think that Gladwell is admitting to a second side of the story. He is not; he is
only furthering to explain why he is right.
Timothy Smith has now graduated college and is working as a contractor. He
makes the average income in the United States and lives in a modest home with his wife
and two young children. His best friend Ryan, who he still keeps in touch with, has
moved out of their small town and ventured to New York where he has a beautiful family,
a large, family sized apartment downtown, and a high paying job as a lawyer. Ryan
wasnt placed into advanced math in the first grade. He wasnt the smartest kid in school,
but he worked hard and showed everyone that degree of intelligence didnt stop him from
becoming successful. What made Ryan successful were characteristics that cannot be
measured motivation and determination.