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** spoiler alert ** Malcolm Gladwell's new book reads like a series of cocktail-party anecdotes. Whether the book is a mere fluff piece or something more is open to debate. At its heart, it has two themes: (1) That success depends not just on talent but opportunity, and (2) that success (and failure) also depend on the cultural legacies we inherit from our forebears. Boiled down, here are his essential ideas:

OPPORTUNITY

1. Luck matters. Hockey players who happened to be born between January and March were disproportionately represented in professional hockey leagues. From an early age, these players were the oldest in their age bracket, and therefore bigger and more coordinated. Coaches selected them for better training and playing opportunities, and overtime, success bred success. Likewise, students who happened to be older for their class scored higher on math and science tests than their younger classmates, and were more likely to be picked for "gifted" and other advanced programs.

2. Even smart people need 10,000 hours of practice before they master a skill. Those that can get those 10,000 hours during childhood are a step ahead. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and The Beatles all had unique opportunities to have lots and lots of practice in their specialties at an early age before becoming successful.

3. After 120, increases in IQ are less important than creativity and "practical intelligence" -- knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect. A lifelong study of geniuses showed they were no more successful than the average population. Nobel laureates are just as likely to come from City College of NY, Augsburg College, or Gettysburg College as they are from Harvard.

LEGACY

4. Rural Americans in backcountry states -- Kentucky, Tennessee, North & South Carolina -- inherited a "culture of honor" from their Scotch-Irish forefathers. These herdsmen warriors brought with them a willingness to fight in response to the smallest slight. This led to a pattern of bloody and violent feuds between families across the Appalachian states. (Think Hatfields vs. McCoys.)

5. Korean Airlines had an unusually high rate of plane crashes because of the Korean culture's extreme deference to superiors. Junior pilots were reluctant to directly contradict their Captain on a flight, even in the face of grave error. This explains, for instance, the Korean Air Flight 801 crash in Guam in 1997. When the airline hired a specialist from Delta to retrain the pilots to speak more transparently, their safety record went up dramatically.

6. Asians are good at math and science because their ancestors planted rice paddies. Rice farming was more labor intensive than Western agriculture. Asians have inherited this stick-with-it-ness that allows them to excel in math and science, where perseverance is mandatory.

7. Unlike rice paddies, wheat or corn fields need to be left fallow every few years. Early American educators adopted this principle toward schooling - that students must not be exhausted. Hence, the long summer vacation, a distinctly American legacy. But this legacy is counterproductive, because kids tend to forget things over the summer. Kids who go to schools with shorter summer breaks tend to have higher test scores.