Really many things happened today. After having a quite stressful day, I could not do anything in the first self study period because it was hard for me to concentrate. I just had too many things to think about. I needed to choose a topic for my physics experiment project. I needed to finish my Lang essay. I needed to do this. I needed to do that. With all these thoughts in my mind, I felt as if I am stuck in a pool fool of mud. I wanted to run away from my tasks but they grabbed me tightly and did not let me go.
Then, I found out that I was unhappy. I had really many things to do, but I did not want to do most of them. I have always thought that having lots of tasks to do is a good thing. Before, when I did things with passion, I could feel alive. However, today was different. I could not feel anything. Depressed, I started to find out the reason why I became this much different.
At that moment, the book, "Outliers" came into my sight. When I first saw the title of it, I immediately thought about AP Statistics. I knew that I have to read this book for my English Writing class. Without expecting anything, I picked out the book. In the front cover, it was written, "The Story of Success". I thought, "Story of success? That would be interesting to read. But, do I really want to be successful? What is success in the first place?" I could not get out of my cynical view of the book because my condition at that time was just awful. Maintaining that view, I started reading.
Surprisingly, the introduction of it kind of healed my troubled mind. Just by looking at the title, I predicted that this book would be about "success" from start to the end. However, it started with a quite interesting story about people living in the town Roseto. Compared to the people in other towns, residents of Roseto live much longer. Wanted to find out the reason, Wolf and some other people start to study the diet, exercise rate, and genetics of Rosetonians. However, no concrete reason came out. After conducting some more studies, Wolf concludes that there is no direct cause of having long life span. It just had to be Roseto itself. When something great happens, it is usually not the result of one's own commitment and decision. More often, it is a product of cooperation. Community has more to do with it than an individual.
Before reading the introduction, I was having hard time because I focused too much on my own thoughts and decisions. I should have let some of my worries to be solved naturally by the community in which I am in. If I did not read the book, I have had never known that I should think beyond my self. What is important is not an individual. We should all learn to look beyond the individual. Real success is only achieved when I am with my community.
Nice personal connection to the book. I am happy to see you responded despite being so busy, and I'm also glad to see you aren't putting this class at the bottom of your list of priorities.;)
답글삭제The book is not a "self-help" book and is actually highly readable for many reasons. It has lots of stories and insights coupled with bits and pieces of interesting fact. When you read you often feel like you've learned something, and Outliers is a goldmine.
Nice insights. I immediately googled Roseto after reading and found out a few other interesting things. It's really small and has lost some of its charm, but the Italians are still there.