David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Gladwell's ideas are as compelling as his prose. The essential premiss is that mainstream views of success produce Goliaths who may be unable to view the world creatively and may lack the resilience to adapt and succeed when times change. The Davids of the world might see opportunities others miss and have the the necessary resilience for success which comes from being an underdog.

It's interesting that several of the case studies Gladwell works through are based on religious figures as there is something of the evangelist in the way Gladwell writes, too. This makes for an easy read - like listening to a sermon on one of the Gospel stories - but did make me wonder at times how much the flow of the story was encouraging me to lazily drift over the rigour of the argument. Not that I have particular reservations about Gladwell's argument, just that he is so skilled with his prose that I wondered at times if I might have forgotten to think for myself.

From my perspective as a Middle School Teacher, I'd like more of my students to think about Gladwell's discussion about universities and the advantage of a 2nd tier university over a 1st tier uni. I particularly liked the argument that we can define success broadly and see opportunities for meaning in many different life paths.

I was given this book by one of Grade 8 students who wanted to know what I thought. I hope this review helps, and a copy of the book will be going into my classroom library to challenge some of my other enthusiastic readers.

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