What Malcolm Gladwell Missed!

All right, for a change, I will make this article a short one. In his book called Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell devotes a chapter to Rice Paddies and Mathematics [to know the connection between the two, purchase the excellent book]. In that chapter, he says that Asian students have an innate proclivity towards Mathematics due to which they end up performing much better than their Western[notably American] counterparts.

The reason for their inclination towards Maths, is not because they are very hard working students, but because of their language. Asian languages, like Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc have very short names for the numbers. For eg 4 is Si in Chinese and Shi in Japanese. But in English, we have long names, such as Seventeen, One Hundred and Twenty Two, etc. So it takes more time for us to register that number in our mind when we are thinking and calculating in English, but if we do so in Asian languages, we can do all calculations rapidly and with a very high accuracy. This also improves our memory and our mathematical skills, since we can both calculate and write very fast with a high accuracy.

That is the basic argument as to why Asians outperform Americans in Mathematics. And to some extent the logic is true of course. But that does NOT mean that the only reason Americans lag behind in Mathematics is due to language. For Gladwell, while performing his research on Asian countries, has conveniently forgotten to consider another country, the one with the second largest population, and the second fastest growing economy- India.

We will, for the time being consider only literate Indians, notably the middle class and the high class. Almost all of them, without exception, learn Mathematics in English and not in any other language[asian or otherwise]. Yet, almost ALL of them can easily beat any American student of their level [or even a higher level] when it comes to Mathematics. Let alone Americans, in fact most Indian students can easily compete with any country in the world when it comes to Mathematics[at the middle school or high school level]. And they do that with English as a medium- making Gladwell’s argument fall flat on its feet that it’s due to the language that students perform calculations better.

You [especially if you are not an Indian] may think that I am just being boastful about my own country. But I will take another example- that of the most popular competitive exam in the world- the Graduate Record Examination[GRE]. And you cannot blame me for any bias, because it is an American exam, not an Indian one. So, I give you three guesses to this question-Students from which country perform the best in GRE? If you ask this to an average American, the chances are he will answer this- ‘USA, Germany, France’, or if he is a bit more knowledgeable he can say China. But of course the correct answer is India. Indians dominate in all western exams- GRE, GMAT, TOEFL, IELTS, etc. Though now the Chinese have also come far ahead. In fact, take the questions of the Mathematical section of the GRE- designed to test college level students, and give them to any student of class 7 or 8 in India, and he/she will solve them with ease.

Now do the reverse. Bring some of the brightest Western students and make them appear for IIT-JEE, probably one of the toughest exams in the world. And check how many of them can even solve a few questions, let alone crack the exam.

So why is it that if Indian students are so good in Mathematics, hardly any Indian has made any significant contribution to the field of Mathematics? Can we name even a single living [famous] Indian mathematician? In fact I doubt if students can go beyond Ramanujan or Mahalonobis[both dead for quite a while].

At one time, India produced most of the World’s best Mathematicians. However this culture has vastly disintegrated and now we produce only engineers and managers trying to serve their own selfish greed, rather than making any significant progress/research in their field.

In fact, the reason why so many child prodigies who win medals in the International Mathematics Olympiad disappear is because their parents force them to join IITs and do engineering. Once they get into that, the thought of mathematics is all but forgotten. Sad, but true. In the west, such budding youngsters are encouraged to sharpen their talents and do extra-ordinary research in their field, be it Mathematics, Science, Law, Medicine, etc. It’s only in India that we look down upon people who do not choose engineering, medical, etc as a profession and try to do something different.

I will end with this story- I know a person who was interested in Statistics, and wanted to do research work in Mathematics which would help India develop a better mechanism for studying the poverty rate, and the food distribution rate, etc. Instead his parents forced him to join an Engineering college, shattering his dream, which along with him slipped into oblivion.

When will the people [especially realize] realize that forcing your children to study Engineering and MBA against their will is actually harming rather than benefiting them? Getting an ABC job is NOT, and SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED THE ONLY AIM IN LIFE.




Just recently, some notable Mathematicians around the world were awarded the Fields medal[equivalent of a Noble Prize] in India [International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM)-Picture Above]. Yet not one of them was Indian. Vishwanathan Anand played chess with 40 Mathematicians simultaneously, yet the people of India are yet to wake up from their slumber.

As long as people keep on pursuing their own selfish interests, ie money and status, India can forget about producing any eminent personality in the field of Mathematics or Science.

A few Book reviews

First another sincere apology to all my blog readers- I managed to post just one entry in the past month[June]. Here are my excuses:

1. I am lazy
2. I had my sixth semester exams, which I messed up [except for the java exam].
3. My summer training has started, and I am traveling frequently to Kolkata and then back home every week.
4. The biggest culprit- My modem got damaged after suffering from a lightning discharge which got transmitted by the telephone wire. So I was left without a stable net connection, and rarely came online.
5. I am indolent, erm isn’t that the same as point 1? :-D

Anyways, to take a slight break, no serious topic this time. Will write short reviews on a few books [which I have read recently/am currently reading]. Would like to thank one of my best friends, Girish, for lending them to me.



1. The Double Life of Ramalinga Raju, by Kingshuk Nag[former Times of India editor].



This one is an excellent work compiled by Nag, and gives us a detailed insight into the Satyam Scandal. What were the things that actually went on in Satyam, even years before the news broke out. As the tag line says- ‘How did an IT czar run a $2 billion company to the ground?’ We get to know the entire life history of Raju, and also his family, and the other conspirators who were responsible for this nefarious act. Raju’s lust for acquiring land led to his downfall. Also included- Extensive coverage of Maytas Infra, a real estate company run by Raju’s son. Very highly recommended. Nag has a great writing style. I could not put the book down. I felt I was reading a comic book, and not a book on corporate chicanery.

My score- 8.5 out of 10.

Plus- Great highlights, factual, exhaustive
Minus- Nothing much really, maybe the author could have written a bit more.

2. What the Dog Saw, by Malcolm Gladwell.




Those who are Gladwell followers will possibly have read this one too. This guy is a genius. Period. I have never in my life seen such an accomplished and versatile Non-fiction writer in my entire life. He used to write articles on Business, Medicine, law, etc for the New Yorker magazine[from which the articles in this book are taken] and is now writing books dealing with the intricacies of human behavior. Why do people do the things that they do? Gladwell has further increased my interest in psychology. This book is a collection of different articles which he has written in the past, after doing extensive research. His topics are quite diverse- Why is Heinz still the leader in the Ketchup market? What do hair dyes have to say about women independence? Why should we not hire people who are too-smart? What are the harmful effects of having too much information? What is the art of failure? How can we predict Dog patterns and avoid dog attacks? For what purpose was the birth-control pill invented? How can we hire the right candidate for our job? Who was responsible for the failure of Challenger space-shuttle? Are smart people over-rated?

I guess you got the idea. Go and get the book and unravel the Gladwell magic for yourself. I bet that you will be hooked. Do read his previous books as well if you haven’t already.

Final score- 9.5 out of 10 [sorry, but nothing’s perfect in this world]

Plus- Everything
Minus- Nothing. [Sorry, but am a bit biased towards Gladwell]

3. The High performance Entrepreneur, by Subroto Bagchi:




First of all, let me say that this book is not for everyone[at least that’s how I feel]. If you have no interest in entrepreneurship, the chance is that you may not like this book. Though the author has written it in a very reader friendly approach, and you should have no problem understanding the text. In short, it’s totally non-esoteric. However, I would recommend you skip this one if you have no interest in business, corporate life, etc. This book gives you an insight into setting up a business of your own, ie a profitable company in which you[along with your team-mates] are the boss and you have to make the rules. However, entrepreneurship is a very tricky business and out of every 100 start-ups, just a few are likely to succeed and make it big. This book will give you lots of tips on Do’s and Don’ts and things to keep in mind while setting up an entrepreneurial venture. I have not yet completed the book, but have found it simply amazing. Bagchi has a great and lucid writing style, and tells us a lot about his company, ie Mindtree. He says that the most important characteristic of an entrepreneur is resilience. For an aspiring entrepreneur like me, this book is almost like a Bible.

Rating- 9 out of 10.

Plus- Great guide-book for all budding entrepreneurs. Lots of comprehensive features about the intricacies of setting up a business from scratch.

Minus- Not really recommended for people who have no interest in business, entrepreneurship, etc.