david and goliath- new book review malcom gladwell

Review

Mr. Chabris

The Wall Street Journal

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Prologue

3000 years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn't have won.


What he is Trying to Convey

In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.


• The outcome of the original David-and-Goliath clash wasn't a miracle, Gladwell argues: it's just what happens when the weak refuse to play by rules laid down by the strong.

• Difficulties and afflictions, the book shows, frequently foster creativity and resilience.


What he is Trying to Convey

David and Goliath 1st Original Story

• Goliath was unusually large. His height was said to be - some 290 cm tall - and he fought as armored charioteer.

• The Bible describes how he challenged the Israelite warriors for single-handed duel, but nobody dared to fight with him.

• David, who was fourteen years old at this time, finally answered to challenge.

• He was skilled on use of sling, and he found out a way how he could win him. He accurately slung a stone on Goliath's forehead, just below his helmet. The stone knocked Goliath out. David then ran to unconscious Goliath, pulled his sword off the scabbard, and cut his head off.

• Seeing a fourteen-year-old boy killing their champion, the Philistine army demoralized.www.makemegenius.com

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Moral of the Story• We sure you probably know the Bible story of how a boy named David

fought and killed a giant named Goliath. Now, Goliath was a mighty warrior who was more than nine feet tall! He was protected from head to toe by a suit of armor made of bronze. His armor alone weighed more than one hundred pounds and he was armed with a sword and spear.

• David, on the other hand, was a young shepherd boy. He had no armor for protection. It would have been much too heavy for him to carry. And how about a sword and spear? No, David's weapon was a sling and his ammunition was five smooth stones which he picked up from a nearby stream. And yet, David was able to defeat a giant that all of the soldiers of the Israelite army were afraid to face.

• We may never face a giant such as Goliath, but we face giants of another kind in our daily life. We face giants such as fear, insecurity, loneliness, and failure. How can we overcome those giants that want to defeat us? These five stones can help us to remember the story of how David defeated the giant he faced. They and also help us to know how we can defeat the giants which we face.


Gladwell gives us few stories of Successful Menwho started with certain weaknesses but overcame

those by sheer hard-work .

• David Boies is the super-lawyer who represented IBM against the U.S. government, the U.S. government against Microsoft, Al Gore against George W. Bush and gay marriage against California's Proposition 8.

• A man at the top of his profession, presiding over a firm of 200 lawyers, he seems to be a Goliath.

• But Malcolm Gladwell sees this literal David as a figurative David too, because Mr. Boies came from humble origins and faced mighty obstacles to success. www.makemegenius.com

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‘We as a society need people" with serious disadvantages to exist. Many a times these people end up benefitting the society by excelling in some

traits to overcome their weaknesses.

• As for the weak, "the act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty."

• According to Mr. Gladwell, the secret of Mr. Boies's greatness is neither luck nor training. Rather, he got where he did because he was dyslexic.


Some CRITICISM• In a recent interview, Mr. Gladwell suggested that the

hidden weakness of "Goliath" enterprises is their tendency to assume that the strategy that made them great will keep them great.

• But there are prominent examples of companies that failed after not changing direction (Blockbuster and Kodak) as well as ones that succeeded (Apple deciding to stick with a proprietary operating system rather than shift to Windows).

• There is no prospective way to know which is right, despite what legions of business gurus say. Sticking with what has worked is far from irrational; indeed, it is the perfect strategy right up until it isn't.


Summary

• In "David and Goliath" readers will travel with colorful characters who overcame great difficulties and learn fascinating facts about the Battle of Britain, cancer medicine and the struggle for civil rights,


In short

Malcolm Gladwell too often presents as proven laws what are just intriguing possibilities and musings about human behavior.

Credits— Mr. Chabris is a psychology professor at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and the co-author of "The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us."A version of this article appeared September 28, 2013, on page C5 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Goliath of Nonfiction.


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david and goliath- new book review malcom gladwell

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