David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm GladwellMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The book speaks about how underdogs end up winning many battles in the world.
The first part speaks about how some disadvantages are actually advantages.
The author quotes the example of Vivek Randive an Indian who immigrated to US and coached his team of geeky girls in basketball and reached the national level finals. Neither had Vivek any previous experience of playing basketball neither did the girls possess good prowess, but they went on to win against teams coached by experts and having girls having better physique and practice. The reason for the success was that Vivek did something that the other teams never expected would be done. His girls played non-traditional basketball. They did not retire to their half after scoring they attacked and did not let the other team move into their half. In this case, Vivek not knowing too much about the basketball game helped him groom a team of winners.
The second example that the author quotes is that it is considered lesser number of students is advantages. But with various examples the author argues that there is a minimum number of students required to make the students learn better and there is a break even point at around 29 - 30 which should be the ideal number of students in a class. Too many obviously causes a problem and too less reduces the variety and variation in the points of view and interpretation are too less.
The third example is of a good student who gets admitted to a high grade university, gets the subject of her choice, but drops out due to pressure. The concludes that when a student gets admission to a high grade university and second grade university, it makes a lot of sense for the student to pick the lower grade university to succeed. The reason is that the student may be left with a feeling of lack of ability when faced with others who are as good or better than herself and there is a high likelihood that she would be demotivated and drop off. Whereas in a lower grade university it is likely that she will be at the top of the class which boosts her psychologically and keeps her motivated.
The second section highlights how right amount of difficulty is required to bring out the best in everyone. The author opines that if everything is smooth it can lead to complacence and lead to failure.
The first set of examples is how several people with dyslexia have succeeded in life thanks to their increased effort to concentrate and ability to listen leads them to success.
The example is of Jay Friedrich who came up with the most successful cure for leukemia thanks to his troubled childhood where he endured the loss of his father and saw his mother struggle to earn a living to bring him up.
In the third section the author highlights how usage of too much power is actually negative.
The first example is of how Ireland's situation deteriorated after the entry of the British army with its high handedness.
The second example is of how "three strikes" rule in California actually did not help solving crime, but actually had a negative impact. Three Strikes rule stated that anybody caught for the second offense gets double the imprisonment and anybody caught the third time spends a life term irrespective of the crime. Whereas in another part of the US a lady police office managed to bring down the crime rate by going on a Thanksgiving day distributing turkeys to in the area where the crime rate was high.
The last example is that of Andre Trocme in France who sheltered a lot of Jews even as the Germans were trying to prosecute them. He could do it because for generations his sect has been prosecuted and they knew how to put up a good resistance.
A nice book to read.
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