David And Goliath By Malcolm Gladwell Book Review — Chinasa Ike
The book, David and Goliath, focuses on the advantages of disadvantages and the disadvantages of seeming advantages. I look at the story of David and Goliath from the bible differently now, it’s supposed to be a story about the underdog surprising the big guy but it turns out to be a much more interesting read when some historical elements are better explained. It’s quite intriguing to acknowledge that a perceived disadvantage might be the catalyst needed for a person to perform exceptionally.
Gladwell stresses on how hardships can bring forth individuals who are quite capable of changing the world. One has to have the heart and will to hold on through impediments in order to make the world work differently. Such individuals are often steeled by stumbling blocks encountered at a young age.
The type of impediments matters, as does the response to it. These concepts are better explained using the examples of bombings “direct hits,” “near misses,” and “distant misses.” Gladwell expounds on how the Blitz during World War II affected London and England in general. Instead of creating hysteria, as the Nazis had believed and as British authority had feared, three different effects were registered. First, those who lost their lives directly as a result of the bombing and couldn’t spread panic . Those who experienced near misses were injured, and also were not able to spread panic. So the bulk of Londoners at the time experienced “distant misses” distant bombings, a few minutes of hiding for dear life and then the resumption of normal activities. Most of the Londoners became acclimatized to the bombing believing through experience that they were not going to be hit. As this cycle continued, it became obvious that the German plan had backfired and the British moved into a confident retaliation mode.
Dyslexics , orphans and victims of different impediments are pointed out. As Gladwell writes, some suffer direct hits, and their impediments take them out of the game. Others are near misses, and suffer a little but survive. And some are distant misses, people who come out with a strong sense of self after learning to deal with their hardships or differences. These people are the focus of the book.
One of the lessons I got from the book is that difficulties can toughen people, and we need people with those hard edges in order to make progress. Gladwell stresses that this difficulty is important to progress. If we keep everything pleasant, we make no progress.
But do not be confused,the lesson of David and Goliath is not that the small upstart or the most undesirable person wins. Rather, it is that those who have undergone difficulties , who have gained a level of callousness, who have had significant skills fired in the hearth of hardships , and who are not happy with the status quo, these are the people who most often succeed . We might not always like them, they may do things we think are wrong, but they are our giant-killers.
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