David and Goliath

Read one of my favorite sociologists, Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, David and Goliath.  Gladwell uses the historical biblical tale of Goliath, the giant soldier who is donned with a golden helmet, to fight the small and slender, David, who volunteers for the battle. And who wins?  The story has been used for centuries to note that underdogs should not be overlooked.  Gladwell highlights these “underdogs” in war, such as Lawrence of Arabia and how they won a war they had no reason winning.  Vivek Ranadive’s basketball team, his daughter’s seventh/eighth grade Junior BB team from Redwood City in California won the National championship by playing an unheard of defense for the entire game, player to player press!  Full game press would be something the opposition would never think of doing, but they did, and won, and won, and won!  Doing the unexpected can lead an underdog to the elite status.  Gladwell draws upon changes in our society and measures the outcomes of those changes, such as, increase in hiring school teachers to lower classroom size and notes that it may improve student learning, to a point… but overdo it, and it’s costly and it doesn’t work.  Same with California’s crime reduction approach, “three strikes” rule that put repeat offenders in jail.  This law certainly responded to drug usage etc., but now the jails are overrun!  Has it really helped?  How about Monet and his band of artists?  How they became famous?  Or Dr. Freireich and saving children who had cancer?  I won’t give you all of his examples, but they are compelling and gives us all a chance to best understand that just because the deck may be stacked against us, don’t give up so quickly.  There are always exceptions for every rule.  Gladwell is on top of his game again in this one.  Read it and learn!