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When Christopher Langan is introduced in Outliers, it’s explained to the reader that a game show host claims some believe that he is the smartest man in America. However, by including Langan in the chapter titled "The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1," Gladwell foreshadows a contradiction in Langan’s story: in spite of his remarkable IQ, Langan struggles to find success. The anecdote of Langan’s game show appearance, when he displays poise and confidence and walks away with $250,000, contrasts with Langan’s educational experience, in which he drops out of two colleges and never completes his degree. Gladwell uses Langan’s story to reinforce the power of community. Though Langan began speaking at six months old, taught himself to read at the age of three, and was off-the-charts on a typical IQ test, he grew up in an environment of poverty and family instability. Because he lacked the support of family or others close to him to teach him how to advocate for himself, Langan was unable to overcome challenges of the higher education system, including financial aid paperwork and class schedules. Gladwell suggests that without a supportive community, Langan lacks the practical intelligence, or power of persuasion, to thrive in the college environment, though he has the analytical intelligence, or IQ, for college. As Gladwell wraps up Langan’s story, he shows him married and living on a horse farm, surrounded with research on a sophisticated project dealing with physics, mathematics, and philosophy. With the confidence of his game show appearance, Langan notes that he doesn’t believe there’s anyone smarter than he is, yet his distrust for authority keeps him from pursuing a publisher for his decades-long work. Gladwell reinforces his argument that Langan’s early disadvantages and lack of encouragement keep him from reaching success in spite of his extraordinary intelligence. Without the power of community, the potential for success eludes Langan.
