asian-mathWhen Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success came out last year, there was an outcry from some in the Asian American community over one of the chapters which made the argument that the reason why Asians are so good at math had to do with our history as rice farmers. Now, just hearing that out of context does make the statement sound ridiculous and possibly racist. But many of those who found fault with Gladwell’s thesis hadn’t actually read the book so their complaints were based on a superficial (mis)understanding of what Gladwell was trying to say.  Read more...