Title: David And Goliath-
Underdogs, Misfits and The Art of Battling
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publication: Little, Brown And Company
To be named among 100
most influential thinkers by TIME -2005, surely has a
charm to it which draws enough readers to your books/articles especially when
you are a master story-teller. And that is what happened to me as well. I
wouldn’t say I was disappointed after reading this book.
The idea of the
book:
The book opens up with the recreation of the very famous story of
David and Goliath. But the analysis & reasoning behind how David defeated a
giant – Goliath is completely contrasting from what we knew (or at least I
knew). The broader theme of the book revolves around how underdogs &
misfits fight and win consistently (Part-1 & 2 of the book) and how battles
be it civil orregulatory ones- are not won despite having huge power(Part-3 of
the book).
The book is divided in three parts;
Part 1: The advantages of disadvantages (And the disadvantages of the advantages)
Part 2: The theory
of desirable difficulty
Part 3: The limits
of power
Part 1: The advantages of disadvantages (And the disadvantages of
the advantages)
The first piece of the
story under this part covers a person called Vivek
Ranadive who is coaching the team of girls (his daughter being part of the
team) for basketball which he never played in his life and that to for
competing in National Junior Basketball. This team beats hands down more
professionally managed teams with best of the team players in it one after
another in their very own game of basketball. How they did it?? –By fighting
the game completely in an unconventional way – which was opposite of the way
professionals were playing with a defined set of skill generally required in
basketball. The larger point in this context comes from the study of political
scientist Ivan Arreguín-Toft which says only 71.5%
of times, ten times bigger populated & more armed countries have won a war
against very small countries which are conventionally not very much armed in
past two hundred years. Digging deeper Ivan found out when small countries
fought wars with bigger counter-part with unconventional warfare tactics (guerrilla tactics) their winning probability
increases drastically.
The
revealing point: The author emphasizes,
underdogs and misfits do not score victory just because they work hard or by
some miracle but refusing to fight in a conventional/defined way in which big
team is good enough or familiar with. So, identifying an unconventional or
alternate way to beat the giants (who are good at only specified skill set conventionally
used in that game/war) and working up rigorously to develop that alternative
skills set. The event of underdogs beating the giants is not an improbable
event actually, (we perceive it as improbable and hence we glorify it)
underdogs have consistently won in many battles/games.
“Why do we
automatically assume that someone who is smaller or poorer or less skilled is
necessarily at a disadvantage?” – Quote
from the book.
The second
piece of the story covers two running themes
1)Parenting and effect of money 2) Class size and effects on students’ learning.Without
getting into specific examples. The discussion dwells on the relationship
between the amounts of money with parents have and how that does have an impact
on parenting. As money increases, parenting becomes more effective up to
optimal points after that ‘diminishing marginal returns’ kicks in. So after
that point, richer you are it is more challenging to perform parenting.(ever
heard about rich spoiled brats!) Likewise too much of a class-size is badly
affecting the learning of the students but important to highlight too less
class size also does not optimize the ideal cohort learning.
The
revealing point:Targeting premiers schools where
class–size is too small on the name of enhanced and engaging teacher-student
relationship may not yield the desired results as your beloved ones may never
get exposed to ‘peer learning’ orget a diversified learning experience by being
part of bigger size class. Same why rich parents have nothing to smile about
but to worry about if we go by studies done, beyond a point too much of money
works as a spoiler for the kids. So, here seemingly the advantage of having too
small a class or too much of money may turn out to be disadvantageous in
reality.
The third
piece of story questions do getting into
most prestigious institutions always works in our best interest. It talks about
how the world’s one of the best group of impressionists did great eventually by
not getting accepted by Paris Salon – the most important art exhibition in all
of Europe around 150 years back. Similarly, getting into Ivy League
universities may not effectively lead to super achievements which you dreamt of
but it may kill your interest or may induce frustration/depression as you are
unable to cope up with the supreme heat of the competition among the students.
(this point is well accepted & understood as we have seen many stories
around us or in Hindi movies – 3 idiots! OR you may have lived yourself!)
The
revealing point:Getting into the Ivy League
may not turn out to be as advantageous as it was thought of, many times it may
turnout to be disadvantageous. Placed in highly competitive and near burn out
environmental settings may lead to higher dropouts, depression/frustration
among students and lack of passion. Being part of moderately good, nurturing
anda conducive environment where you feel comfortably in your ‘zone’ brings
best out of you.
Part 2: The theory
of desirable difficulty
This portion of the book was most adventurous, thrilling,
eye-opener and also painful. It covers stories of kids with dyslexia and also a
quite disturbing description of kids affected by leukemia – blood cancer and
the story of Martin Luther King Jr.The theme this part highlights is that more
difficult situations one has gone through more alternative skills development
happen which is not there with other sets of people who have not gone through
that difficult time period. And this leads to some of the time unbelievable
success achieved due to the difficulties and the response system one has
developed by honing that alternative skill set.
That is the reason author calls it ‘desirable difficulty’.
Part 3: The Limits
of Power
This portion throws lights on persistent troubles which were going
on between Catholics and Protestants in Northern
Ireland during 1970s. With refreshing angle, the author shows how government
despite having full of power/authority/ force and all the resources to control
such uproar fails miserably. Few other beautiful stories to draw an analogy
with the above theme are also covered like the story behind three strike law in
California and so on which I’ll not dwell into. When a section of people sees the
entity/government as a source of power which is not perceived as a fair &
just, then these people stand up most stubbornly and steadfastly against it. Many
freedom fights and civil fights depict this quite convincingly.
Note: My intention was just to summarise some of the important
highlights and learning points from this book, so I refrain from criticizing
some of the debatable points in this book.
