Tuesday/Thursday's Blog- November 24- Success and Failure

Success and Failure- Outliers- Malcolm Gladwell 

In the book, Outliers, chapter four focuses on the life of Chris Langan. Chris's mother had four sons, Chris being the eldest. His father was an alcoholic and disappeared before Chris was born. His mother's second husband was murdered, her third committed suicide, and her fourth was a failed journalist named Jack Langan. With that being said, he unfortunately grew up very poor. Although he was poor, Chris was extremely gifted. He started talking at six months and he taught himself to read at just the age of three. He was born smart. Upon graduation from high school, Chris was offered two full scholarships, one to Reed College in Oregon and the other to University of Chicago. He ended up choosing Reed. He found the adjustment from growing up on a ranch to going to school with a bunch of kids from New York City was difficult. He said he was unable to speak up in class even though he knew the material well. Eventually he lost his scholarship due to his mother failing to fill out a parents' financial statement for the renewal of his scholarship. He proceeded to ask the office why and they neglected Chris's proclamation saying he did not have a scholarship anymore. He was furious there was nobody there for counseling, or mentoring.

Chris Langan 

He decided to drop out and considering he left before final exams he was leaving with a row of F's on his transcript. He worked as a construction worker and a firefighter for almost two years before enrolling at Montana State University. He was doing well there, taking philosophy classes when one morning his transmission fell out of his car due to his brothers using it on the railroad that previous summer. He contacted his adviser asking if he could move his morning class to an afternoon class so he was not marked absent. However, the dean was disdainful and declined his request. He was frustrated and dropped out saying he was done with the higher education system. Chris's experiences at Reed and Montana State represented a turning point in his life. As a child he dreamt of becoming an academic. Going back to construction, he continued to read deeply into philosophy, mathematics, and physics. He wrote several papers but he believed no one would take him serious considering he had a year and a half of education.

The author, Malcolm Gladwell connected Chris Langan's story to Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist who famously developed the nuclear bomb during World War II. Oppenheimer had a mind, just like Chris's. His parents considered him a genius. Oppenheimer started doing lab experiments by the third grade and studying physics and chemistry by the fifth grade.

Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer went to Harvard and then to Cambridge University to pursue a doctorate in physics. He struggled with depression his entire life and was gifted with a tutor, named Patrick Blackett (won Nobel Prize in 1948). His tutor forced him to study experimental physics which he hated and preferred theoretical physics. He grew more emotionally unstable, and out of no where tried to poison his tutor with chemicals from the laboratory. The university was informed and and Oppenheimer was put on probation. Twenty years later, Oppenheimer would lead the atomic-bomb effort from Leslie Groves, the man who was in charge of the Manhattan Project.

So here are the stories of Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. Two very brilliant young students, each who run into a problem that endangers their college career. Langan's mother had missed a deadline for his financial aid and his car broke down so he kindly asked to switch into a later class while Oppenheimer tried to poison his tutor.

Patrick Blackett

Langan gets his scholarship taken away while Oppenheimer gets put on probation and gets sent to a psychiatrist. Oppenheimer was known as the man who was trying to kill his tutor in graduate school yet was put out for the most important jobs of the century. The difference between Langan and Oppenheimer is that Oppenheimer got the rest of the world to see things his way while Langan did not. His "charm, intelligence, and performance" stood out to everyone. The question here is would Oppenheimer have lost his scholarship at Reed? Would he have been unable to convince the dean to move his classes to the afternoon? The author, Gladwell states, of course not. Not because he was smarter than Chris, they were both equally intelligent, but because Oppenheimer possessed the kind of perception and savvy that allowed him to get what he wanted. Another difference between Langan and Oppenheimer is how Oppenheimer was raised in the wealthiest neighborhoods in Manhattan, and was the son of an artist and a successful garment manufacturer. He attended Culture school and had a lot of advantages growing up that Chris did not have. Chris grew up dominated by an angry, drunken stepfather who would lock the cabinets so Chris and his brothers couldn't get the food. Chris never had a parent to teach him the way to success. If Chris was born into a wealthy family, and the son of parents who had great jobs, he would be very successful having a PhD at age seventeen.

This is where I found success and failure to be a theme. Although today, Chris is doing perfectly fine and is living on a horse farm in Missouri with his family, his college career had failed and was nothing that he had dreamt of. Nevertheless, Oppenheimer was the successful one. I thought this also connected to the theme I am reading about this quarter, (sports) because athletes, especially professional athletes will be successful while some will fail.


I feel like this connects to me because sometimes unfortunate things happen in my life and I feel as if I have to tirelessly work for making what has happened better on my own. For example, in the beginning of the year I ended up getting very sick. I was in the hospital for weeks and after a while of recovery, I went back to cheerleading. Given I got sick in January it was right in the middle of competition season, so my coaches had to replace me with someone on a different team to cover my spot until I got back. When I returned, I worked and worked on my own to get to where I used to be before I got sick. (I had an extreme virus that effected my muscles so I had to regain my strength back) After proving I was ready to pick up where I left off, my coaches decided to tuck me into the back of the routine and leave the fill in I had in my spot. Of course, I was very upset and often I would find myself thinking how come this has to happen to me when getting sick was not my fault or something I could not prevent, yet I was in a way getting punished for it. Before I got sick, I worked really hard to make this certain team I was on. But, because I got sick I felt like I was barely apart of the team. I thought Robert Oppenheimer and Chris Langan's stories connected to me because I felt like I was Chris in this particular case working for something hard and then ending up not getting rewarded for it. I also felt like the girl that filled in for me was Robert Oppenheimer and although she was very talented she did not have to work as hard as I did to make the team she just was left on it because her mother had connections with my coaches.