Living for the 1%

I find myself saying that a lot lately: living for the 1%. I use this phrase in conversations, discussions in class, and most prevalently in my decision-making processes. Even though I say it so often, I wanted to use this post to clarify for myself what it means to me. 

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There are some people in this world whom we’re bound to dislike, whether it be due to the way they talk, the way they think, or just how they present themselves in public. Even when I find myself in classes or just walking along the paths of campus, I endeavor to enter every conversation judgment free. I’ve found this practice has allowed me to capture different parts of everyone and compartmentalize these traits into someone whom I call myself. 

There’s one particularly interesting person in my grade from whom I learned this phrase that I find myself repeating. He has surface-level knowledgable on an expansive array of topics and is one of the most opinionated people I’ve met. One of his mantras is living with some risk for the greater majority of the times when things actually work out okay. 

After lunch, I was sitting in Commons finishing up some work before my next class. Suddenly, I realized that I’d forgotten to bring a sheet of paper that my teacher had handed out the day before. He usually doesn’t refer to handouts from previous classes, but in the moment, a sudden fear that he would ask we take it out became the impetus for my plan to take an 8-minute walk back to my dorm to get it. Only a few minutes remained before the class would begin, so I told my friend that I needed to run back to my dorm to get the sheet. He replied matter of factly: Do you really think he’s gonna check it? Like he never does. I said it was a possibility, and I wouldn’t want to be called out on that. He promptly replied that it was better to come to class without a paper that would most likely not be used than to come to class late with a paper that had that 1% chance of being referred to. I thought about it for a moment and could see his point. Am I living life for the 1%?

It reminded me of a topic we studied in my Proof and Persuasion class about framed risk. The example I remember most vividly is about a car accident. There was a scenario where a person dies in a car because they wore the seatbelt. This seems like an unlikely and merely unfortunate situation since seatbelts are designed to ensure safety. However, the public overreacts to the incident and deems seatbelts as inherently dangerous. This is what I consider to be living for the 1% chance, as people have changed their perceptions on something that proves effective the majority of the time. 

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I suppose what I’m learning is to take some more risks with life and to minimize inevitable outcomes of fighting for the slim chances that something might happen. If I’d gone back to get that handout from the previous class, I would have sacrificed my timeliness to class to get a sheet that we likely would not use. If people stopped wearing seatbelts, they would save themselves from the 1% chance that they die from wearing a seatbelt but escalate the probability of death from an accident in general. 

I guess what I’m really weighing are priorities and risk. I’m figuring out the value of doing something in the grand scheme of things and weighing the benefits against the inherent negative outcomes. This is becoming increasingly important in my high school career, as I’m finding I have less time to make up for these minor mistakes (forgetting a sheet of paper, forgetting to take reading notes etc.). This can signal one of two things, either I walk into class slightly less prepared but pull through just this once or create a new fault that cannot be excused. 

Time's greatest gift

Time’s greatest gift is its ability to alleviate and dissipate our most troublesome worries. 

To my 16-year-old ears, the phrase “Just sleep on it” couldn’t stand truer.  Magic happens overnight and I’ve discovered how dark clouds of worry in my head before bedtime clear when I wake up. It’s starting fresh. Issues and worries that seem to have no end during the long nights suddenly appear to have feasible solutions. To this sense of clarity, I thank time. 

Sometimes, things happen during the day that I know even sleep won’t mitigate and these occurrences can strain my ability to think clearly. I found that time creates distance. It’s like we’re on an evergoing train powered by time where every stop is a event. Time drives us further from each stop. I’ve discovered that after a certain threshold of stops, I end up looking at that troublesome stop in the distance with some pity. In certain cases, of course, these are life-altering stops, but most of the time they look petty in the distance. I end up asking myself, was it really worth all that stress? 

Regular readers of my blog will know that I’m a believer in the idea that everything happens for a reason and I’ve come to realize that time is a significant proponent.

So better things can fall together

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"Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together" -Marilyn Monroe

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Perhaps my online-book-shopping methodology is catching up with me. I usually do my book shopping on Amazon's Charts. The primary problem I've discovered from this methodology is that I miss out on the bestsellers from earlier years, since the Charts are composed of the newest bestsellers. I've missed out on a lot of good bestsellers, which I plan on revisiting, one of which is Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, published in 2008. When I posted a story on Instagram about this book today, several people replied to me saying they’ve also read (and really enjoyed!) this book. Apparently, this book is quite popular and well-known, yet I’d just become aware of it last week! The examples in the book blew my mind every step of the way, and Gladwell’s research is truly insightful. 

Outliers is riveting from page 1. Gladwell begins by discussing how history and opportunity play a role in a person’s success and he makes the argument that success is not so “random” an occurrence. He first analyzes star-hockey players. For years, many people have been trying to figure out what it takes to be a hockey star. Of course, hard work, talent, dedication, and physical size play a tremendous role in determining how successful the athlete will be. However, Gladwell notices that most star hockey players are born in the months January, February, and March, with the fewest athletes born in fall and the last couple months of the year.  He wonders why this trend occurs.

It turns out that there is a logical, and utterly random reason, as to why this pattern persists: little league cutoff dates are on January 1. What this cutoff date suggests is that hypothetically, on a given team, there could be a person born on January 1 and a person born on December 31. They’re almost a year apart, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but the December 31 kid is a day too old to play the younger team, so they’re stuck being the youngest on the older team. While a year doesn’t seem like much, there’s a major gap in the physical development between the two players. The January 1st kid will probably be bigger, faster, and stronger, making the coaches want to spend more time coaching them and give them more play time. The difference between these two players will, therefore, start out very small, but year by year, the difference in their skill levels will differ greatly with the extra play time and coaching. One of Malcolm Gladwell’s primary claims in Outliers is that timing is one of the most crucial and uncontrollable aspects of successful people. Building upon this principle, Gladwell explores how the Beatles and Bill Gates are connected, the secret behind geniuses, and how 1930 and being in the garment industry sets one up to be a successful lawyer in NYC. 

The first part of Outliers was certainly my favorite, though the second part none the less captivated me. Part 2 focuses more on how culture plays a role in outliers. My favorite example in the second part is Gladwell’s analysis of plane crashes, and how where the pilot and his crew are from influences the chance that an accident will happen. The chapter of the book analyzes the Power Distance Index, developed by Geert Hofstede. This index measures the distribution of power between nations and I believe one of the primary ways Hofstede’s measures this index is through seeing how likely individuals are to stand up to/rebel against authority with whom they disagree. Meanwhile, Gladwell uses recordings from the cockpits of planes that crashed in the past, and analyzes how first officers and flight engineers from high PDI countries are less likely to directly report when a something on the plane is malfunctioning. This chapter analyzes the inherent nature of cultural habits and ways of communication between ordinary people and authority from country to country. Part 2 of Outliers also analyzes how history and the culture that has been developed around that historical event has influenced people’s behaviors and successes in the modern world. 

I would recommend Outliers to anyone looking for a fast read that’s meaningful. I honestly started seeing things in a way I hadn’t thought of before. While Gladwell may be perceived by some as taking a pessimistic viewpoint on the success, I think he presents ample evidence and reassures readers that no one succeeds on their own. I found Outliers on the “Stay Curious” table at the COOP in Harvard Square. I think that’s a fitting description.