David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Whew! Where do I start to convince you to read this thought-provoking, entertaining, page-turning gem? On the title pages of the books I read for these reviews, I usually list 10 to 20 page numbers—with the best stuff I want to talk about. This book: 45 bullet points, all worthy of long paragraphs. It’s pure torture knowing I can’t mention most of them. You gotta read this bestselling book! Malcolm Gladwell is a master at his craft with bestsellers like Outliers: The Story of Success, Blink and The Tipping Point. His latest, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, is classic Gladwell. He writes, “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 and been forced to respond. Should I play by the rules or follow my own instincts? Shall I persevere or give up? Should I strike back or forgive?” In these memorable stories (I’ve already shared half-a-dozen relevant vignettes with colleagues in the last 10 days), Gladwell explores two ideas: 1) sometimes “the act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty,” and 2) we “consistently get these kinds of conflicts wrong. We misread them. We misinterpret them. Giants are not what we think they are.” So rather than a dozen spoiler alerts here…I’ll give you a True or False test. Mark “True” if you think the following notes are from David and Goliath. TRUE OR FALSE? #1. In the mid-1950s, Swedish furniture manufacturers boycotted IKEA, angry over his low prices. So in 1961, at the peak of the Cold War, IKEA’s founder did business with manufacturers in Poland—the equivalent today of “Walmart setting up shop in North Korea.” #2. Based on the statistical history of wars—the David vs. Goliath types—if Canada waged an unconventional war on the U.S., “history would suggest you ought to put your money on Canada.” #3. In discussing the relationship between parenting and wealth, “The scholars who research happiness suggest that more money stops making people happier at a family income of around $75,000 a year.” #4. “The phenomenon of relative deprivation applied to education is called—appropriately enough—the ‘Big Fish—Little Pond Effect.’ The more elite an educational institution is, the worse students feel about their own academic abilities.” #5. So…where should your kids attend college? Research on college grads concludes that “the best students from mediocre schools were almost always a better bet than good students from the very best schools.” Gladwell divides his stunning findings (told through page-turner true stories) into three parts: 1) “The Advantages of Disadvantages (and the Disadvantages of Advantages),” 2) “The Theory of Desirable Difficulty,” and 3) “The Limits of Power.” More True or False: #6. “We have a definition in our heads of what an advantage is—and the definition isn’t right. And what happens as a result? It means that we make mistakes. It means that we misread battles between underdogs and giants.” #7. In Gladwell’s up-close-and-personal interview with a world class attorney who has dyslexia, the lawyer talks about the advantages of his disadvantages. “Not being able to read a lot and learning by listening and asking questions means that I need to simplify issues to their basics. And that is very powerful, because in trial cases, judges and jurors—neither of them have the time or the ability to become experts in the subject. One of my strengths is presenting a case that they can understand.” #8. George Bernard Shaw once said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” #9. In response to Birmingham police jailing hundreds of children who skipped school to march in the Civil Rights demonstrations, Martin Luther King responded, “Jail helps you to rise about the miasma of everyday life. If they want some books, we will get them. I catch up on my reading every time I go to jail.” #10. A California father, incensed at his daughter’s brutal murder, champions the Three Strikes Law, while a Canadian couple—Mennonites—forgive and move on; “a very practical strategy based on the belief that there are profound limits to what the formal mechanisms of retribution can accomplish.” Business leaders will appreciate this book, but I’m guessing nonprofit and church leaders will love it. They have “against all odds” challenges most days before breakfast. So, have we been looking at “disadvantages/giants” incorrectly? Why might disadvantages actually be advantages? During World War II, the Germans pretty much gave up on disassembling a safe haven for Jews in the French mountain community of Le Chambon. Why? Gladwell says, “wiping out a town or a people or a movement is never as simple as it looks. The powerful are not as powerful as they seem—nor the weak as weak.” I could go on, with another 35 or more mind-grabbing and soul-whacking notes, but I gotta stop. I hope you’ll read this book. Give it for Christmas and you’ll receive appreciative thank you notes. (By the way, all 10 statements above are “True.”)

One of the reasons we love Malcolm Gladwell’s books is the way he uses the art of storytelling to contradict common assumptions about the way things work. In this aspect, his new book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, is full of well-researched, counterintuitive arguments that demonstrate patterns and connect the dots between seemingly unrelated events. In short, it does not disappoint. As we’ve come to expect from a writer of his caliber, Gladwell grips you from the start, with the timeless story of David, the Israelite, and Goliath, the Philistine, and why the duel between them revealed the folly of our assumptions about power. Gladwell argues that we “continue to make that error today, in ways that have consequences for everything, from how we educate our children, to how we fight crime and disorder.” “Why,” he says, “do we automatically assume that someone who is smaller, or poorer, or less skilled is necessarily at a disadvantage?” Especially when history shows us that underdogs win more often than we think. “That’s because underdog strategies are hard,” he notes. “To play by David’s rules, you have to be desperate,” he says. “You have to be so bad that you have no choice.” With stories from basketball to Lawrence of Arabia, he demonstrates how prestige and belonging to elite institutions (think MBAs), can actually limit our options. And how being an underdog and a misfit can give you the freedom to try things no one else has ever dreamt of. He goes on to demonstrate, with some surprising statistics, how too small a class size and too much family wealth can, both be disadvantageous to children, and why it’s wrong to assume that being bigger, and stronger, and richer, is always in our best interest. I found particularly fascinating the story of how the Impressionists succeeded by choosing to be the Big Fish in a Little Pond of their own creation. You’ll learn why the more elite an educational institution is, the worse students feel about their own academic abilities. So, if you did not make it through to the IITs (or Harvard, Yale or MIT), take heart. It’s better to be a Big Fish in a Very Welcoming Small Pond than a Little Fish in a Very Big and Scary Pond, says Gladwell. And going to that less competitive college might be the best thing you’ll ever do for your self-confidence and your career. While it might seem counterintuitive to talent hunters, statistics show that hiring the best students from “mediocre” schools would be better than going after good students from the very best schools. “We have a definition in our heads of what an advantage is – and the definition isn’t right,” says Gladwell. “It’s the Little Pond that maximizes your chances to do whatever you want.” My favourite part, however, was when, using the fact that an extraordinarily high number of successful entrepreneurs (including British billionaire, Richard Branson) are dyslexic, he asks the controversial question, “Can dyslexia turn out to be a desirable difficulty?” Could it be that they succeeded, in part, because of their disorder? When something, like your sense of sight, is taken away from you, your brain compensates by sharpening your other senses. In the same way, could dyslexics learn to compensate for their reading difficulty by becoming better listeners and learning to understand the nuances of human communication better than their peers? That does seem to be the case. As Gladwell states, “What is learned out of necessity is inevitably more powerful than the learning that comes easily.” But the dyslexics who succeed also seem to have a special brand of stubbornness coupled with a highly developed ability to deal with failure, and the tendency to not care a damn for the approval of others - qualities that many a successful entrepreneur shares. These are the coping strategies they developed in a world that looks down on those who cannot keep up academically, but that gave them an advantage in the world of business, where disruption is greatly valued. Personally, I like to see these so-called disorders, that the psychiatric profession is so quick to diagnose nowadays, as “gifts” that help us see the world in ways that others can’t. I used to think it was just me (and a bunch of other people who believe in a more inclusive world) that thought this way, so Gladwell’s argument that being “differently-abled” can be turned into an advantage delights me. I believe that we will, one day, see the same argument put to people with autism. The evidence is already there. We just need someone like Gladwell to dig it up for us. In the vein of what doesn’t kill you make you stronger, his next chapter speaks of the acquired, uncommon courage of those who survive either an event like the bombing of London by the Germans, or of losing a parent in childhood. It reminded me of the courage of the people of Mumbai who are known for going back to work the day after a bombing by terrorists. With so many “remote misses” to create a feeling of invincibility, no other city in India can claim such nonchalance in the face of terror. It’s his chapter on Wyatt Walker that I find the most unsettling, where he defends Walker’s use of children in Birmingham’s civil rights marches. “Our definition of what is right is, as often as not, simply the way that people in positions of privilege close the door on those on the outside,” states Gladwell. Since Birmingham, child soldiers have been used by mercenaries like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone in their battle against the Goliaths they were fighting, with disastrous consequences for the children involved (if you want to understand what happened to the children drafted into the RUF, I recommend you watch the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer, Blood Diamond). So, no, I don’t think Birmingham is really the right kind of example to make in the David vs Goliath battles, no matter how worthy the cause. Weaving a common thread through the stories of crime in America, and the war between the Irish and Prostestants in Northern Ireland, Gladwell goes on to show how “the excessive use of force creates legitimacy problems, and force without legitimacy leads to defiance, not submission.” Gladwell wraps up the book with the beautiful and heartwarming story of Andre' Trocme' and the village of Le Chambon in France that protected Jews in defiance of the Nazi invaders. As he notes so eloquently, “The powerful are not as powerful as they seem – nor the weak as weak.”

Malcolm Gladwell's latest bestseller, David and Goliath, will leave you reeling. It nullifies so many things you thought you already knew. Just as you think you've recovered from all the eye-openers in Outliers, here he comes again with new revelations to knock you off your feet. I've heard Gladwell say that he's just a storyteller. but I say he's one of the great thinkers of our time...an historian who filters out the untruths, a mathematician who helps you solve all the puzzles, and a psychiatrist who gets into your head. Since the running theme throughout the book is that giants don't always win, he demonstrates it well with many cases. The truth about the biblical story of David and Goliath is shocking. Little David not only "flipped the script" by changing how the fight would proceed - not hand to hand combat, but utilizing the sling, a popular skill he had perfected. Goliath was vulnerable in many ways; he had a disease that affected his vision, he moved slowly, his armor was too heavy and it left an exposed forehead. David took his shot. Gladwell cites many examples to prove his point. Lawrence of Arabia with his motley crew also triumphed over 1200 Turks because they had an "advantage." Underdogs often have an advantage. His men happened to know the desert better... where the water was, how to avoid the snakes, how to survive. Find your advantage. You may have heard of the concept Big Fish in a Little Pond and vice versa, but not like this. Gladwell interestingly relates how each year millions of students are faced with the task of choosing a college to attend. But they may want to revise their thinking once they read about Caroline. She was smart as a whip, top of her class, loved science since she was a kid. She always knew what she wanted to be. Like most students, she chose the fanciest, most prestigious college that would accept her. When she got there, the environment was different, courses were harder, students more competitive and seemed to think on a higher level. Unable to comprehend the science work and feeling demoralized (The smarter the people in your class, the dumber you feel), she switched to the humanities. If Caroline had chosen her SECOND school, if she had been a Big Fish in a Little Pond, she would be a happy scientist today. (Gladwell says that many former math and physics majors are lawyers today.) This example is cited again with the impressionist painters in Paris in the 1800s, Monet, Renoir, etc. Their work was always rejected in The Salon, which was the most prestigious art show in the world (Rejects often committed suicide). Their work was different. They finally decided to start their own exhibit...become Big Fish in a Little Pond to beat the giant. Their work sells for millions today. The most interesting concept in the book is the "Inverted -U Curve." It will turn your own thinking upside-down. Gladwell says we operate in an inverted U- shaped world. You can disprove a prevailing universal belief by using it. Here's the math: Supposing you think money makes parenting easier, you'll note that the extra resources on the left side of the curve seem to show just that. And as you reach the level top, no real difference is seen. But as you head down the right side, money makes the situation WORSE. You'll want to read about it for sure. ( Dad, what do you mean we can't afford it and I don't value money? You have a Maserati and Mom has a Porsche!) Gladwell explains it clearly. It's the same principal for "smaller class sizes." Who would debunk the long-held belief that small classes are better? Not when you head down the right side of the inverted-U. (Not enough opinions for good discussion, and more.) You must read about the $50,000 private boarding school in Connecticut that had every resource you can imagine, and be shocked when you examine the right side of the inverted U curve here. Many things are WORSE (although the pianos are all Steinways, so if you're in a practice room playing Chopsticks, it's going to sound really good.) p. 61. Reading about the "Three Strikes" law in California and how it came to be initiated by a murdered child's father, is mesmerizing. It certainly would seem workable though...the third offense, they go in, 25 to life. They're off the streets. But it didn't work. It had to be changed. The right side of the curve shows why. ( No one looked at how criminals minds work. How they'll be punished is not on their minds when they do a job. Too distracting.) Even more surprising in Gladwell's book is the Civil Rights leaders using old slave trickery to fight the evil racism giant. Slaves had relied on the ways of trickster heros in folklore to get back at slave masters. Brer Rabbit, Anansi the Spider and others taught them cunning and devious ways. Read how Wyatt Walker, cunning and sly himself, got Bull Connor to do what he wanted in the name of advancing Civil Rights, and how he staged events history doesn't know about. Gladwell introduces the theory of Desirable Difficulties. Could being bombed produce a Desirable Difficulty? Perhaps. Three things can happen: you could be killed, you could be traumatized by the experience (called a Near Miss), or you could be made happier and stronger because you were spared a couple of times, and it makes you feel invincible. That's called a Remote Miss. Remote Misses appear often in the book. It's also desirable to have dyslexia, at least according to Gladwell. He says you can beat this giant too. Just look at the lives of people who did it. The most famous trial lawyer in the country couldn't read. He taught himself to memorize and perfected his listening ability. Others did unusual things, even bold things we wouldn't think of doing to excel. Read all about it. You'll love it like I did.

I've read Gladwell's other books and it seems like I'm reading the same book just with slight adjustments. Gladwell formula is to find a simple and straight forward concept, then with massive confirmation bias go find stories that fit that concept, for the most part ignore any counter evidence against it and then give the book a few word catchy title and then BAM! it sells millions. In "David & Goliath" the idea Gladwell presents is that hardships/disadvantages can actually turn out to be advantages and lead to massive success and even lead people to surpass others who didn't suffer from the same hardships/disadvantages. Futhermore advantages may actually be disadvantages for example a person doesn't have to work as hard (due to privilege) thus never develops the work ethic required for massive success. He supports his argument through stories most notably referring to the biblical tale of David & Goliath. The books central idea lies in contrast to that of Gladwell other book, Outliers: The Story of Success, which argues pretty much the opposite that luck and advantages lead to success while disadvantages can lead to massive failure. So which is it? Is Gladwell contradicting himself? He seems to be arguing that both are true. What may appear advantageous or as a disadvantage on the surface may actually be the opposite. Especially when time is brought into play, so an event may suck at the time of event but looking back it actually was essential to later success. While what Gladwell is arguing is absolutely true to a certain extent, the way he is looking at things is flawed. Steve Jobs once remarked "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards". You can look back at any series of events in hindsight and find patterns and come to conclusions "Because x happened/didn't happen y happened/didn't happen so z must be true". Gladwell makes the same mistake he did in Outliers by overweighting the role of luck and by using massive confirmation bias and hindsight anaylyis to argue his point. While I enjoyed the book and Gladwell excellent selection of stories and writing style (he keeps the reader engaged pretty well) I couldn't help feeling let down as Gladwell keeps making the same mistakes he made in other books. Too much confirmation bias and hindsight analysis without properly addressing the counter arguments to his ideas. Really this book felt like it was the missing half of Outliers that argued in contrast to that books central theme. The two together make for a good read but by themselves there's much to be desired. So if you pick up this book then you should defiantly read Outliers otherwise you'll be left with an incomplete picture. For people who've never though about the role of luck and chance advantages/disadvantages then the book will serve as a good eye opener and maybe will even make you more humble about your own successes and failures. However the significant flaws, addressed above, in how he goes about his research and arguing his points are not able to be overlooked. 3/5 stars as is (maybe with outliers they could get a 4/5 combined but that would be a stretch.)

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants" by Malcolm Gladwell is an absolute masterpiece that captivated me from start to finish. Gladwell's ability to weave together intriguing stories, insightful research, and thought-provoking analysis is simply unmatched. This book is a game-changer, challenging conventional wisdom and reshaping our understanding of what it means to be an underdog. Gladwell's storytelling is both compelling and relatable. He explores the idea that adversity and unconventional circumstances can often lead to unexpected advantages and opportunities. Through a series of captivating anecdotes, he illustrates how individuals and groups can harness their unique strengths to triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds. What I appreciate most about "David and Goliath" is its ability to inspire and empower readers. It encourages us to reevaluate our own challenges and view them through a new lens. Gladwell's writing is not just about storytelling; it's about sparking a shift in perspective and encouraging us to rethink our assumptions about success, power, and the human spirit. "David and Goliath" is a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration, insight, and a fresh perspective on life's challenges. Malcolm Gladwell's brilliant narrative style and thought-provoking content make this book a true gem. It has left an indelible mark on me, and I highly recommend it to readers of all backgrounds and interests.v

If you were taught that the point of David and Goliath was how a small but determined boy, David, managed to miraculously beat a much stronger giant, Goliath, author Malcolm Gladwell suggests that you might be missing a key point. Instead, as he asserts, many "giants" who seem powerful might not be nearly as strong or invulnerable as they appear. And in the particular instance of David and Goliath, Gladwell describes the warriors of the time and notes that David was probably an accomplished projectile warrior, one who knew how to handle a truly powerful weapon - the sling. As a result, his victory may not have been so improbable after all. Carrying the the David and Goliath theme throughout the book, Gladwell devotes many chapters to specific individuals, whether famous or relatively unknown, who had to confront crucial questions and challenge assumptions about power and success. Is it better to play by the rules or follow one's instincts? Persevere while ignoring those who say failure is inevitable? Discard traditional ways of looking at challenges and come up with new innovations - or decide to simply conform? Perhaps there are actually advantages hidden amid what many perceive as disadvantages. Gladwell supports his conclusions with detailed research studies as well as examples from those he interviewed. .I found many of the portraits of the individuals in the book to be inspiring, a challenge to a fair number of my own assumptions about the path to a successful and fulfilling life. One example is Vivek Ranadive', a man who decided to teach his daughters how to become formidable basketball players - in spite of the fact that he had no experience as a coach. He created unconventional methods for turning his daughters' basketball team into winners (even though they were far less experienced than their rivals). As Gladwell writes, he "coached a team of girls who had no talent in a sport he knew nothing about." So what accounted for his incredible success? Perhaps simply being willing to try methods no one else had attempted- at least, not to the same degree.And this is a major point of the book, one that is hammered home repeatedly: those "giants" who seem to have big advantages may have significant vulnerabilities as well.In contrast, those with seemingly lesser skills may be more innovative, creating new businesses, challenging traditional models, changing schools for the better- and more. The possibilities are exciting. I did have problems with some parts of this book. Chapter Four focuses on David Boies, a man who has what Gladwell terms a "desirable difficulty", dyslexia. Yes, many famous innovators, from Richard Branson to Charles Schwab to the successful movie producer Brian Grazer, are dyslexic. But when Gladwell writes "You wouldn't wish dyslexia on your child. Or would you?" that gave this parent pause. While I certainly admire those who've turned challenges into successes, I find myself stopping short when it comes to wishing dyslexia on my child or seeing it as a "desirable" difficulty. That seems to be stretching a point too far, although I do understand that a part of that point is that setbacks may encourage compensations which topple seemingly insurmountable hurdles. But is this a given? I don't buy that. And even Gladwell notes that most people with disabilities can not master the steps required to compensate for limitations in other areas. But he also believe that "those who can are better off" and that "what is learned out of necessity is inevitably more powerful than the learning that comes easily." In spite of Gladwell's inability to convince me that some difficulties are desirable, I found much information in David and Goliath to be thought-provoking and exciting. A wealth of studies are cited, skewering common beliefs left and right. Perhaps small class sizes don't always lead to optimal student achievement. And while poverty can threaten children's future success, the same might be said of those with wealthy parents. Beyond a certain amount (and I'll leave readers to discover that amount) there is substantial evidence that more money doesn't bring more happiness. This one left me questioning so many opinions that I'd assumed were correct. It was definitely an eye-opening and fascinating read.

What attracts Malcolm Gladwell’s attention is how one becomes an achiever or what pushes one to be a successful person. He takes notice in a casual human behavior, in which he tries to find something like an universal theory. His attitude is steady from his earlier works like “The Tipping Point” and “Outliers.” What he takes up this time is advantageous surroundings for us to find vocations and to accomplish missions. In old history a small David beat a giant Goliath and saved his country from collapse. Malcolm Gladwell analyzes the cause of victory as David’s fighting in his own accustomed ring. But how he gets his ability and courage to pull a powerful enemy into his advantageous ground. He broaden his speculation to the most desirable environment for education. He verifies preferable income level, class size, and institutional ranking, etc, for that purpose. We have a very rigid and limited definition of advantage. However, there always is some points those advantage becomes powerless. He introduces the statistics which shows the reality of additional money stops making people happier at a family income of around seventy-five thousand dollars a year. He alleges the most prestigious of institutions is not always in our best interest. For our personal growth, there are times and places where it is better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond. He realizes the fact of “relative deprivation” through illustrating several examples. He comes to understand the existence of inverted-U curve, and a certain level where “diminishing marginal returns” sets in. Most of the time, underdogs didn’t fight like David. In the chapter of the theory of desirable difficulty, Malcolm Gladwell considers environmental factors which helps transforming a weak person into a superstar. He says, somewhere around a third of successful entrepreneurs won their success by getting over their physical handicaps of being dyslexic. Normally people strengthen their strong areas by “capitalization learning.” By adopting much harder “compensation learning,” those who have difficulties come to excel and gain their status all the extra effort pays off. He says one of stray facts is the link between career achievement and childhood bereavement. He shows exponents who emerged from the darkest hell healed and restored. Courage is what we get when we’ve been through times and we realize they aren’t so tough after all. He finds out the unexpected freedom that comes from having nothing to lose as the third desirable difficulty from the lessons of the trickster tales. Dangerous situation divides people in three categories, the killed, the near misses, and the remote misses. While a near miss leaves you traumatized, a remote miss makes you think be invincible. The world is easily turned upside down. In the final chapter of the limits of power, he introduces memorable two examples. A woman who walks away from the promise of power finds the strength to forgive, while a man employs the full power of the state in his grief and ends up plunging his government into a fruitless and costly experiment. He says, one time in ten, out of that despair rises an indomitable force. What he writes in this book is full of vigorous cheer to us. We get a plenty of energy and courage to row against the rough waves.

I was introduced to DAVID AND GOLIATH while watching a 60 MINUTES interview with Gladwell. If you have not seen the interview, I invite you to go online and watch. It will be worth your time. Gladwell’s concept of “inverted U” is a VERY old idea and the centerpiece of the book. I must add that Gladwell is the first author to address the topic in a coherent way! In the mid 1970’s, I discovered an association between “times arrested” and “successful treatment” for the recovery from alcoholism. Patients who had zero arrests had a similar success rate when compared to those who were arrested 16 times (all other 42 variables controlled). On a scatterplot, it looked like a smile (a U rather than an inverted one). I also saw this in Bartley’s book entitled THE SEVEN FAT YEARS where he introduces the Laffer curve. The Laffer curve is an inverted U that illustrates the association between tax rates and tax revenues. I think, as Gladwell proposes, that these inverted and noninverted U’s are very common in nature. Frankly, these inverted and noninverted U’s are critical important for all of us to understand. Understanding this type of association is NOT merely an academic enterprise but has GREAT practical application. Here’s the problem and it’s academic: For data that is hypothesized to be linear, we have Pearson’s r to show us that a straight line is a good fit for an association. Currently, there is no parsimonious formula to demonstrate that an inverted or a noninverted U is a good fit for the data. What we need is a Ph.D. statistician who is also an accomplished computer programmer. We need a single number (like the r) to show use the degree to which data conforms to the U pattern. Anyone who is able to pull this off will become rich. Warning: Don’t do the research using university time or equipment. If you do, you won’t be able the keep the millions of dollars you’ll earn. In the end, DAVID AND GOLIATH is a wonderful book. Although incredibly profound, one doesn’t need to have a college education to understand it.

Ever since I started reading this book it has exceed the perspective I once had from the world. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell made me remember that it is my decision to play with everything I have to be the best. This book is awesome.

A great book in line with previous works by Malcolm Gladwell!! Great analysis of underdogs and misfits, you will never think to be capable of success. This book really changed the way I see the world

Amazing to find such different stories illustrating the authors' purpose. Well written and interesting. The stories are inspiring lessons all the way.

This is the first book review I've ever forwarded to Amazon; as a busy CEO of a performance-improvement business I have little time to do spare on such things normally. I am therefore not a 'professional reviewer' with aspirations to become as renowned as the author, neither do I wish to use the platform of a review to demonstrate how clever I am or how many associated works I have read, in some way diminishing the author's innovative work. I have done so simply because, having devoured and reflected on this book over a few days (as with all Malcolm's others, which I've bought in numbers for my people) I found it absolutely inspirational in adjusting my thinking in several key areas. Having read the first few reviews, I felt moved to give it the unqualified praise and admiration I feel it deserves. It is to me is the best book I've read for years (and I am looking at 200+ now in my office). Its key messages have application to so many of us in so many ways. For example, as someone integrally involved with education and training for 30 years, the insights about class size accords with our own experiential discoveries and should be informative to educators generally. The big pond little fish insight will halp many undergrads to focus on the most appropriate University for them personally. The insights about the legitimacy of authority, whether relating to policing (Brownsville), the military (Northern Ireland) or the justice system (California)should be informative to everyone involved in these activities, and especially those responsible for policy-setting -the essence of each being that humans are more influenced in decision-making by innate emotions than rational thought (as neuroscience has been discovering in recent years). A truth which is all too often completely ignored. The theory of desirable difficulty as applied to dyslexia will help me empathise with employees who have that disadvantage, perhaps by making their assignments harder to read, which I now see will improve their attention and outputs! All in all, this is a truly compelling read for anyone willing to look at apparently counter-intuitive ideas and open to adjusting their thinking as a result - surely the unique genius in all Malcolm Gladwell's books. Malcolm - come to the UK and speak to our policy-makers!!

I recently read David and Goliath and I must say that it is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. The book is about how underdogs can win against all odds. It's full of interesting stories that keep you engaged throughout. The author, Malcolm Gladwell, has a way of telling stories that makes you feel like you're right there with him. He uses real-life examples to illustrate his points and makes it easy for the reader to understand complex concepts. The book is divided into three parts: "The Advantages of Disadvantages (and the Disadvantages of Advantages)," "The Theory of Desirable Difficulty," and "The Limits of Power." Each part contains several chapters that explore different aspects of the main theme. One of the things I liked most about this book is that it challenges conventional wisdom. For example, Gladwell argues that being a big fish in a small pond is better than being a small fish in a big pond. He also argues that sometimes what we perceive as disadvantages can actually be advantages in disguise. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about how underdogs can win against all odds. It's an easy read and it's full of interesting stories that will keep you engaged from beginning to end.