I
am a latecomer to the ranks of Malcolm Gladwell fans so forgive me if I am a
bit overly enthusiastic. I found a copy of the audio version of David and Goliath on my desk just before
Thanksgiving. I wasn’t sure if I had ordered it or my husband had but I needed
something for the long drive home, on the day before Thanksgiving, when the
weather had turned bad, so I popped it into the CD player. I was entranced by
the end of the drive. (Graciously, I allowed my husband to have it first since
he had ordered it, but then I listened to it morning and night on my drive
until I’d finished it.)
“David
and Goliath is a book about what happens when ordinary people confront giants.
By “giants,” I mean powerful opponents of all kinds – from armies and mighty
warriors to disability, misfortune, and oppression. Each chapter tells the
story of a different person – famous or unknown, ordinary or brilliant – who has
faced an outsize challenge…”
Gladwell
begins the book with the titular story of David and Goliath but explains it a
bit differently than you might expect. David and Goliath has long been told as
a story where the puny underdog wins against the vastly stronger and more
dangerous giant through a miracle.
Gladwell
contends that “ . . . we consistently get these kinds of conflicts wrong. We
misread them. We misinterpret them. Giants are not what we think they are. The
same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great
weakness.”
Goliath
was a giant warrior, well prepared for close hand to hand combat with mighty
weapons. He didn’t expect a small and agile shepherd boy to fell him from a
distance with a slingshot then dash in for the kill once he was down.
Gladwell
uses stories from distant history mixed with modern history. He compares some
seemingly disparate stories and shows us how the outcome can be explained by
similarities you might not realize, as in the stories of Vivek Ranadive, who
ran a successful software company, and decided to coach his daughter’s junior
basketball team, and Lawrence of Arabia. In these two stories, not having the
same advantages as someone else forces each protagonist to approach his
challenge in a totally fresh way.
“Ranadive
coached a team of girls who had no talent in a sport he knew nothing about. He
was an underdog and a misfit, and that gave him the freedom to try things no
one else even dreamt of.”
Likewise,
T.E. Lawrence was a poet, not a military man, but he used what he had.
“There
is a set of advantages that have to do with material resources, and there is a
set that have to do with the absence of material resources – and the reason
underdogs win as often as they do is that the latter is sometimes every bit the
equal of the former.”
Gladwell
covers so much in this book - the advantages of disadvantages (and the
disadvantage of advantages) as well as the theory of desirable difficulty and
the limits of power. He explains the U curve and class size. He talks about
college choice and whether you will be a big fish in a small pond or a small
fish in a big pond.
One
of my favorite chapters in the book is when Gladwell explains the principle of
being a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond using the French
Impressionists creating their own art show instead of sticking with the giant
salon where they were lost in the crowd, and often laughed at. I think this is
a great story which also illustrates my belief that we need to create the art
we care about and then find the market rather than trying to conform to what we
think others want.
I
also particularly enjoyed his take on how dyslexia can affect how people
approach challenges in a positive way and his points on how money makes
parenting easier, but only up to a point, where it actually begins to make it
harder.
I
was absolutely fascinated by this book. There is a thread of persistence and
audacity, being willing to face down the dreaded because you have nothing left
to lose, that I have identified with at times in my life.
Gladwell’s
reading was also particularly effective on the audio version. I recommended
this to my writer’s group on the basis that the stories Gladwell tells are a
great possible insight into character motivation, teaching you about the
psychology of a possible character through stories. I think it’s also just fascinating
insight into who people are and the way they function and thrive.
