David and Goliath- new book review malcom gladwell

Review
Mr. Chabris
The Wall Street Journal
www.makemegenius.com
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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

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 Men
who 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

‘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.

David and Goliath- new book review malcom gladwell

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