David and Goliath

Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers” pulled out some counter-intuitive data about why some people are successful. The book basically told us that it is not talent but hard work that pays off. That book put the "10,00 hour" rule into mainstream conversations. You have to practice something for 10,000 hours before you can become an expert at anything.That book was perhaps his best work. In “Blink” he told us that the snap judgments that we make in the first few moments turn out to be true for the most part. That book, in my opinion, was just a sketchy idea that showed up as a full-fledged book. David and Goliath is also a book based on a not so insightful idea. The whole book is basically one idea packaged with trivia and anecdotes that repeat the idea over 300 pages.Let me test your beliefs. Having parents who are wealthy is an advantage, correct? Being dyslexic is a disadvantage, right? Getting to an Ivy League college is an advantage, is it not? Surely, losing a parent early in life is a disadvantage. If you agreed with those four statements, then you are wrong on all counts. What you thought of as a disadvantage is actually something that works in your favor. But wait, didn’t you always know “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger”.  People have often battled extraordinary challenges to achieve their dreams. Helen Keller is a role model not only to people who are visually challenged. She inspires each one of us. Malcolm Gladwell’s thesis is that we have a flawed sense of what is an advantage or a disadvantage. Instead he should have told us why some people can turn their disadvantage into an advantage. That would have helped.The section about hiring raised a question I found to be useful. Every corporate has agonized over this dilemma: What should our hiring strategy be? Should we hire only graduates from the most elite schools? Or should we hire students who finished at the top of their class, regardless of what school they went to.The answer according to Gladwell:

“The best students from mediocre schools were almost always a better bet than students from the very best schools.”

There is no point being a small fish in a big pond. Aim to be a big fish even if the pond is small – it helps keep you motivated enough to learn.There is no fun being a student at the bottom of the barrel in an elite institution. Thinking that “everyone else in the class is much smarter than me” can actually be a huge barrier to learning. Learning is a social process. Being with people whose abilities you can match facilitates learning. So when colleges lower the admission criteria to make it easier for students from disadvantaged groups to join, they think they are helping the student. They really are not, says Gladwell. Students from disadvantaged groups often drop out of these elite institutions when they fail to cope in an academically demanding environment.The examples and arguments get more obscure as the book progresses. At the end of each chapter I found myself wondering whether I should read the next chapter at all. Let truth be told - after the first two chapters, I found myself getting bored. The lessons drawn are not new. We all know that the small start-up in a garage can often be more nimble while responding to the market than a giant corporation that has more resources but stumbles on its own shoelaces. Or that a tiny country like Vietnam could hold up against the military muscle of US.  You have heard people say, “The recession is too good an opportunity to waste.”Malcolm Gladwell does well when he writes for the New Yorker. I must say that I like the short articles that he writes. However, if you take one idea and try to make a book out of it, as Gladwell does in David and Goliath, the result is less than impactful."Being an underdog can be an advantage at times" - if that is something you have always known then reading the book will be a waste of time. If you have known it and have some doubts, then read a chapter or two of the book. If you do not believe that being an underdog is an advantage, then this is just the book you deserve to read.----------Join me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduriRead: The recession is a great time to rethink