Outliers Brings It Full Circle

I finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. I had wanted to read this because I had read his other books and liked them. I can actually understand what he is saying. I also recently read a book that I found to be related, The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire by Deepak Chopra and I really don't feel like writing a book report here, but I do want to get some thoughts out in the open. Hell that's why I started this thing anyway. To get it off my chest. So here goes!

Being successful in all aspects of life, being satisfied, happy, etc. is something I am trying harder to focus on and achieve. Although I enjoyed and learned a lot in the book about coincidences, it felt like there was a piece missing. Enter Outliers.

It brought that piece in to help me understand and get it. The two books compliment each other well. "Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them" explains Gladwell. The entire time I read Chopra I was thinking, OK the opportunities are there, and this is the book about how to harness them. The whole time I was reading Outliers, I was thinking, OK so here is how those coincidences occur to a degree. They go hand in hand.


My recommendation would be to read Outliers first and then Coincidences. Outliers explain how these opportunities get set up, mathematically/scientifically. Then Coincidences is on the more spiritual side, and helps you realize how to recognize these opportunities and make the best of them. Someone like me, who is skeptical, needs explanations like Outliers to help understand better. Maybe later on I will re approach this topic but for now, that's all I got.