Outlier Times

Dear Younger Me,

You are living in “Outlier Times.”

Over the course of the last week I have been reading through Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. Malcolm dives deep into all the factors that make successful people stand out: from NHL hockey players, to jewish lawyers, to tech entrepreneurs and everything in between. What Malcolm concludes is that CIRCUMSTANCE plays a much larger role in success than merely the classic “worked from nothing” underdog stories that we always hear about. That the months, years, and eras in which you were born dramatically affect the level to which you succeed in a certain industry. Hockey players born in January are much more likely to make the NHL than those born in December. Tech entrepreneurs were almost exclusively born in the 1960s. Jewish lawyers in the 1930s built overwhelmingly more successful practices than even their fathers that practiced law did in the 1910s.

Hard Work, natural talent, and grit are not absolute ignorances, rather they are enhancers more than they are the main catalyst. The salt and pepper to the greater meal of success: the marriage of circumstance with intrigue. If you happened to be born in the 1960s (circumstance) then you could become dramatically successful if you also happened to be interested in tech (intrigue). The major success stories are “outliers” from the rest of society. Bill Gates is an outlier. The people born in the 1960s were part of “outlier times” if you were interested in tech. It just so happened the first computer came out right around the time the 60s baby’s were in their early 20s. Hungry and tech intrigued, the likes of Jobs, Wozniak, Gates and other 60s babies hit a grand slam on their marriages between circumstance and intrigue.

Outlier times are among us again. The circumstance is those born in the 2000s. The intrigue… entrepreneurship. The development of AI during the first few months of 2023 has given a special opportunity to the highly driven business hopefuls. Beyond that, AI is providing an opportunity even to the unlucky ones. Those born in the 2000s are graduating college. The economy has not been harsher to try and find a job and as a result many college seniors are unable to find one. These circumstances are going to cause hundreds of thousands of young and hungry people to have a LOT of time on their hands. AI is new, but so powerful. AI is young and waiting to be taken by the reigns.

I cannot think of a generation of people who can tap into the outlier times like the 2000s babies. It is right there for you, you just have to reach out and take it. You just need the intrigue to use it. Younger me, I hope you understand the change in front of you. This opportunity to be an outlier. Go take it.

Best,

Older you