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Elliott Mills

Fannon/Bays

English 3 CP

14 September 2016

Super Siblings: The New Generation Of Outliers

Outliers is a story about certain people or groups of people who stood out compared to

the rest of the work. The article super siblings are about siblings who not only stand out. They

are extremely successful. They are connected because the super siblings directly fit the outliers

as in they stand out compared to other normal siblings. Outliers covers many different groups

of people or people, an example of this would be chapter 8, Rice Paddies and Math Tests. The

kids of China and how they are raised and the way that dictates how they become later on when

they are adults. An example of this is, working really hard is what successful people do, and the

genius of the culture formed in the rice paddies is that hard work gave those in the fields a way to

find meaning in the midst of great uncertainty and poverty (PG. 239 Gladwell). Through the

super siblings and the Chinese are not raised the same, they are both raised differently and in turn

they are both outliers. The second text Super Siblings is about siblings who stand out compared

to other siblings and are extremely successful. An example of this would be in the sub article, A

Free-Range Childhood. A Free-Range Childhood talks about the Wojciki sisters. They were

basically left alone after they were taught the basics of life so they could take care of themselves.

A quote from from this sub-article is, I empowered them early, because I wanted to make sure

they could take care of themselves (PG. 35 Esther Wojciki). This shows that the Wojciki sisters

were raised very early and taught skills most children didnt learn till very later on in life.
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Outliers and Super Siblings are connected through many different ways and the fact that outliers

and the super siblings both stand out and are extremely successful.

Gladwell tells the story of Bill Joy and how he seized his opportunities to later

become a master at what he loved to do: coding. But, when Joy was a child, his

opportunities to practice coding were very limited until he discovered a way to bypass

those limitations. But when the programming bug hit him in his freshman year, he found

himselfby the happiest of accidentsin one of the few places in the world where a

seventeen-year-old could program all he wanted (Gladwell 45). Had Joy not been able to

abuse this bug, he would have never been able to get in the practice that he needed to

become as extraordinary as he was. In the same way as Joy, the Super Siblings had lots of

freedom when they were children. Their parents thought that when they were old enough,

giving them freedom would encourage them to learn and develop by themselves. They

wanted their children to be able to take care of themselves later on. I empowered them

early, because I wanted to make sure that they could take care of themselves, (Alter 35).

Although an unpopular tactic for parenting, both Bill Joy and The Super Siblings were

great examples of how freedom can impact success.

Both The Secrets of Super Siblings by Charlotte Alter and Outliers by Malcolm

Gladwell tell stories of success in their communities that encourage them but not pressure them.

In Alters evidence of community it shows that hovering parents do not make great parents, I

empowered them early, because I wanted to make sure they could take care of themselves. She

would let her children walk around the streets and babysit each other. Unlike other parents she
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never pressured her kids to do anything. This is similar to Gladwell's claim for chapter four,

The heavily scheduled middle- class child is exposed to a constantly shifting set of experiences.

She learns teamwork and how to cope in highly structured settings. She is taught how to interact

comfortably with adults, and to speak up when she needs to. This claims that even though their

class they were taught to do things and did not have hovering parents that would pressure them

to be polite all the time. Both authors show that happiness and freedom could lead to a child's

success.

The article The Secrets of Super Siblings by Charlotte Alter explains the ways in which

the qualities exhibited by the families of the super siblings connects to the book Outliers by

Malcolm Gladwell. In Outliers, Gladwell gives different scenarios of how people achieve

success. The overall theme being that it is not just about the person, but the atmosphere in which

they are surrounded by. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have

had the strength and presence of mind to seize them. Marita just needed a chance. (Gladwell

269). This excerpt expresses that success is not just pure luck, but the drive to achieve it.

Similarly, The Secrets of Super Siblings also brings the idea of the drive for success and the

achievement that goes along with the work put in. You cannot reach anybodys goal. Youve

got to reach your own goal, says Gino Rodriguez. You cannot reach a goal unless you set that

goal for yourself. Thats why I can and I will are 5 words that are a push without direction.

(Alter 35). Alter was given this quote by one of the interviewed family members which addresses

that in order to be successful, you must push yourself to achieve success. Throughout Outliers

and The Secrets of Super Siblings, they both share ideas about how success is achieved. The
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main shared theme being that one must take the opportunities they are given and do the best they

can with it.

All in all, super siblings are the new generation of outliers because of how they are raised

and the great success some of them have achieved. The way they are raised breaks the traditional

helicopter parent style of parenting where the parent monitors everything the child does.

Though the children are not monitored by their parents they grow up to being extremely

successful.
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Works Cited

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success.1st ed. New York: Little, Brown and

Company, 2008.