David and Goliath Underdogs Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants Anecdotes
Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Betoken, is a complete storyteller. He reaches into the collective consciousness and bends our worldview to fit his hypotheses in a beguiling, and generally satisfying, manner.
In David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Fine art of Battling Giants, he plays with the idea that "our greatest strength may also be our greatest weakness". He challenges our notion of the off-white fight by investigating "What happens when ordinary people confront giants?"
As the title suggests, his primary metaphor is the biblical story of David and Goliath. He postulates that David, far from beingness a defenceless shepherd, is a seasoned marksman armed to the teeth with the latest slingshot weaponry. Goliath is not the invincible warrior we offset perceive, but a man suffering from gigantism, who is so encumbered by expectations, armour and tradition that he needs a guide to atomic number 82 him on to the battlefield.
Why is it, Gladwell asks, that ordinary people are and then rarely willing to exploit their advantage, (even in life-and-expiry situations) that when they do, they become the stuff of legends? His answer is that Goliath's greatest vulnerability and David'due south greatest strength are non their weaponry merely their divergent globe views. David, as a shepherd, places no importance on military propriety. Goliath, equally a seasoned warrior, anticipates a off-white fight. This schism is the real gap through which David slings his rock.
Gladwell pursues this theory through three acts: Part ane looks at the advantages of disadvantages, and vice versa. Office two observes that most ordinary people fail when they fight giants, and examines what strengthens some to become exceptional. Function iii considers what weakens giants.
The 3 acts unfold in chapters whose stories roll out like feel-good movies: In that location's the story of the New York police force principal who tames the city's almost lawless housing project; a grieving father finds justice for all; and a tempestuous doctor cures babyhood'south cruellest disease. Other examples include Lawrence of Arabia, the civil rights movement, and The Troubles in Ireland. All bear witness desperate people asking themselves: Should I play by the rules or follow my own instincts? Shall I persevere or surrender? Should I strike dorsum or forgive?
Some readers might recognize Gladwell'due south New Yorker magazine article from 11 May 2009, "How David Beats Goliath". It's an inspiring story about a Inferior High basketball game team's unlikely rise from obscurity to the championships. In this story, small 12-yr-old girls from Silicon Valley use a manoeuvre called a full court press to pressure level their opponents to play one-on-one. It'south a technique that gives reward to players who accept no talent for basketball – and enrages the coaches of teams who do.
Nevertheless, the betoken is that it's not in the spirit of a game notwithstanding being learned by young players. This is David being David to defeat Goliath. The example leads to Gladwell'southward other questions: What allows some people to be socially bellicose and to exploit their opponent's weakness? What happens when that sense of injustice hardens into revolution?
Underpinning his hypothesis is the inverted U-curve, a formula that indicates there'due south no such thing every bit unmitigated good. Left unchecked, the well-nigh obvious benefit is somewhen outweighed by onerous cost. Ultimately David volition plow into Goliath, and vice versa.
In that location's an originality to this idea, and a slickness in the telling, which leaves the reader in no uncertainty of Gladwell's towering intellect. Which is ironic, since that will probably concenter many Davids to come up out and throw stones.
David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants is published by Little, Brown and Company.
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Writer: Sheridan Jobbins is a journalist and screenwriter.
Image: Two boys play basketball every bit the sun sets in El Crucero, Nicaragua, March 13, 2007. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas
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Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2013/10/book-review-david-goliath-underdogs-misfits-and-the-art-of-battling-giants
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