--- ## Highlights Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.” The professional hockey player starts out a little bit better than his peers. And that little difference leads to an opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger, and that edge in turn leads to another opportunity, which makes the initially small difference bigger stilland on and on until the hockey player is a genuine outlier. (Location 264) he and his colleagues couldn't find any “naturals,” musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did. Nor could they find any “grinds,” people who worked harder than everyone else, yet just didn't have what it takes to break the top ranks. Their research suggestes that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And what's more, the people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder. (Location 356) But past a certain point, height stops mattering so much. A player who is six foot eight is (Location 764) Einstein had an IQ of 150 and Langan has an IQ of 195.Langan's IQ is 30percent higher than Einstein's. But that doesn't mean Langan is 30percent smarter than Einstein. That's ridiculous. All we can say is that when it comes to thinking about really hard things like physics, they are both clearly smart enough. (Location 767) Knowledge of a law student's test scores is of little help if you are faced with a classroom of clever law students. (Location 823) The particular skill that allows you to talk your way out of a murder rap, or convince your professor to move you from the morning to the afternoon section, is what the psy chologist Robert Sternberg calls “practical intelligence.,, To Sternberg, practical intelligence includes things like ”knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.“ It is procedural: it is about knowing how to do something without necessarily knowing why you know it or being able to explain it. It's practical in nature: that is, it's not knowledge for its own sake. It's knowledge that helps you read situations correctly and get what you want. And, critically, it is a kind of intelligence separate from the sort of analytical ability measured by IQ. (Location 1006) This kind of interaction simply doesn't happen with lower-class children, Lareau says. They would be quiet and submissive, with eyes turned away. Alex takes charge of the moment. “In remembering to raise the question he prepared in advance, he gains the doctor's full attention and focuses it on an issue of his choosing,” Lareau writes. In so doing, he successfully shifts the balance of power away from the adults and toward himself. The transition goes smoothly. Alex is used to being treated with respect. (Location 1080)