These are the two books I read over our weeklong spring break. Both from the Jen Library.
This was the second of Malcolm Gladwell's books that I have read. The basic takeaway for me was that you can be "successful" if you work hard, are focused and persistent. However, to be a superstar you also have to be born at the right time, in the right place and to the right parents. I'm not sure if this is meant to be encouraging or discouraging. The most interesting thing to me was the difference birth month makes to sports success.
This book was a really easy read. I got through it in two days. Unfortunately I'd heard most of the interesting premises of this book through news stories. There is a lot of focus on personal habits and how to make and break them. How you need to work out your willpower muscle. This is the part I'd heard before. I wish there had been a little more to the section about organizational habits and how to change them, other than waiting for a major crisis. Interestingly this is also the second book I've read recently that uses Rosa Parks as an example, the other was 'Quiet' by Susan Cain. That makes the argument that she was an introvert and that's why she had such a great impact, this makes the argument that she had a wide and strong social group and that's why she had such a great impact. I feel both may be stretching her to make a point, I need to read a biography of her next see what was really going on there.