In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell pointed to a study showing Canadian ice hockey players lucky enough to be born in the first half of the year thrived, because of a January 1 age cut-off for the league. But Jim Collins and Morten Hansen countered in Great by Choice that the Boston Bruins’ Ray Bourque turned into one of the all-time greats despite being born in December. He used the bad luck to make himself stronger, they wrote.
在《異類》(Outliers)一書中,馬爾科姆•格拉德韋爾(Malcolm Gladwell)提到一項研究,該研究表示,在加拿大冰球運動員中,有一些上半年出生的幸運兒,他們的事業蓬勃發展正得益於此,因爲北美冰球職業聯賽是以1月1日劃分年齡的。但詹姆•柯林斯(Jim Collins)與莫滕•漢森(Morten Hansen)在兩人合著的《選擇卓越》(Great by Choice)一書中卻提出了反例:即便出生於12月,波士頓棕熊隊(Boston Bruins)的雷•布爾克(Ray Bourque,上圖),仍成爲了史上最偉大的球員之一。吉姆和莫滕寫到,正因出生日期不走運,才令雷•布爾克變得更強。