David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction

Submitted by Gerti

I have read several books by Malcolm Gladwell already, including “Tipping Point,” “Blink”, “Outliers,” and “What the Dog Saw.” In short, he’s been one of my favorite authors for years now. Several of those books (including “Outliers” and “Blink”) were downright brilliant, so it was with great expectations that I picked up his newest, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants.” Sadly, it does not live up to the brilliance of some of those earlier works.

As the title might indicate, “David and Goliath” is the story of how improbably one-sided battles can be won by the underdog, how disadvantages can turn out to be advantages. And like many of his books, it includes research and interviews with people who are living examples of the point he is trying to make.

His first story involves why David beat Goliath. This is a famous story from the Bible, in which a shepherd boy goes against a giant war hero who makes even other soldiers tremble, and wins the day with his slingshot and several well-chosen rocks. Gladwell shows how despite appearances, it was Goliath who was at a disadvantage in this battle, due to his acromegaly and poor eyesight. But the point really is that David won by changing the rules. Goliath was only good at hand-to-hand combat, but David using the slingshot to fight him changed the rules enough to insure his success.

Likewise, Gladwell shows how having dyslexia or losing a parent as a child can make a person either a brilliant success or a pathetic failure. Using examples like Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, and several presidents (including Barack Obama), Gladwell demonstrates how these perceived disadvantages made these men work harder and find tricks and shortcuts that allowed them to succeed. It’s a subject he’s touched on before – how 10,000 hours of hard work and not natural talent can make one an expert at something. And since these men spent so much time overcoming obstacles, they became more capable than those who had never had to face obstacles before.

This would be good book for teachers and school administrators as it talks about the value of small class sizes (of lack thereof), but all of Gladwell’s books have clues about how teachers and schools can make students, even the most disadvantaged among them, succeed. Still this work left me strangely unaffected, despite Gladwell’s easy-to-read style and interesting subject matter. The lessons learned from it are also unarguably valid – work harder to succeed, change the rules if you can’t win the game as it’s typically played, and find out what advantage your disadvantages give you. And while it’s fun learning the true story behind a classic Bible battle, and the struggles of iconic leaders like Lawrence of Arabia and Martin Luther King Jr., I would recommend reading “Outliers”, “Blink” and “Tipping Point” before picking up this latest Gladwell book.