Malcolm Gladwell raises questions which are interesting. And with that, possibilities. In this book he raises the question about underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants. The book is divided into three parts - The Advantages of Disadvantages, The Theory of Desirable Difficulty and The limits of Power.
He starts by explaining the story of David and Goliath and how David won by changing his strategy and not engaging with Goliath on his terms i.e. hand to hand battle. Instead he takes a sling shot and slays the giant from far, not even getting within arm's shot of him. When you change the rules of engagement, the Davids have a good chance of beating Goliaths - theory says that they can do it almost 28% of the time against giants.
To illustrate he picks the case of Vivek Ranadive and his Little League basketball team where he changes the rules of engagement and uses the full press strategy to take a less than competent team to the finals. He explains the inverted U curve which means that anything that is exceptionally considered advantageous can actually become a disadvantage - like size can compromise flexibility. He gives the case of Caroline Sacks who picks Brown University an Ivy League college over a lesser college like University of Maryland, finds herself struggling at the bottom of her class, and drops out of her science class, something she was really good at. Brown's advantage was actually a huge disadvantage for the world. He gives the case of the Impressionist painters from Paris who broke away from the tradition of being picked by the Salon and started their own and made it on their own. The idea of a little fish in a big pond or the idea of a big fish in a little pond is relative.
In the Theory of Desirable Difficulty he makes a case for how dyslexics are good at other things because they are good at listening. David Boies, a dyslexic, works as a construction worker, had poor grades in school and ends up being a top notch lawyer. Gary Cohn who had a disadvantaged childhood takes the shot by getting a ride with a trader and bluffing his way about knowing Options and finally becomes head of Goldman Sachs. Emil Jat Freirich who made great contribution in stopping the flow of blood in child cancer patients, had a tough childhood to thank for his success because he just would not give up and pursued hard routes. Citing the London bombing by the Germans, Gladwell says that those who survive, near misses and remote misses start feeling invincible, stop fearing. The case of Fred Shuttleworth a black pastor who fought on Martin Luther King's brigade escaped three near misses and feared nothing - he waded through mobs of white people alone and made it through successfully. Another classic case of Davids winning is the Birmingham case which tilted the balance in favour of Martin Luther King's movement - a photo of a young boy being attacked by a dog which showed police brutality. King and his supporters used children to protest and provoked the administration into something like this - the picture was misleading as were the crowds (most were watchers, not participants), but Wyatt Walker, King's main man, used the trickster tales of African American tradition to use that to an advantage.
'We are all not merely liable to fear, we are also prone to be afraid of being afraid.'
In the Limits of Power Gladwell cites two cases of parents who lost their children to mindless violence. While Mike Reynolds uses the death of his daughter to bring in tougher laws like the 'three strikes' (after the third strike your penalty goes to 25 years), while Wilma Dirksen chooses to forgive. Gladwell makes a case that forgiveness perhaps worked better. Like the love Joan Jaffe, the police Chief used in the worst side of New York did and inverted the crime graph over five years - she bought turkey for all families with a history sheeter at home. In Ireland Gladwell shows how the British Army lost the plot by siding with the Protestants and isolating the Catholics and completely messing the dynamic - the victory when the Catholic women walked past the Army to save the people of Lower Falls is considered epic. And similarly, the victory of Andre Trocme, a pastor in the little town of Le Chambon, who harboured and protected Jews despite German occupation and survived.
Gladwell cites the Principle of Legitimacy on 'How to earn respect'. When people in power want to the rest of us to behave, it matters first and foremost how they behave.
- People who are asked to obey have to feel like they have a voice - that if they speak, they will be heard
- The law has to be predictable - the rules tomorrow are going to be roughly the same they are today
- Authority has to be fair - it cannot treat one group differently from another
"Most revolutions are not caused by revolutionaries in the first place but by the stupidity and brutality of governments' - Sean Macstiofain, IRA's first Chief of Staff
Interesting stuff. Power to the meek.
No comments:
Post a Comment