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1.63k reviews for:
David Y Goliat: Desvalidos, Inadaptados Y El Arte de Luchar Contra Gigantes / David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell
3.82 AVERAGE
1.63k reviews for:
David Y Goliat: Desvalidos, Inadaptados Y El Arte de Luchar Contra Gigantes / David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell
3.82 AVERAGE
Oh, Malcolm If you handed in a paper like this a graduate class I was teaching, I would fail you.
- Correlation is different than causation.
- You have to explore both sides of a premise.
- You have to look at more than one study for a given issue.
- A critical discussion in the social sciences today is how frequently fascinating, significant effects in relatively small N studies fail to be replicated in large N studies.
And, lastly, "bad stuff is good when it is good and bad when it is bad" is really not the makings of a book. When you can't tell us why dyslexia is good for someone but being a small fish in a big pond is not, that is sort of a fatal flaw to a premise. And oops! People with dyslexia are over-represented in the prison population. How does that fit in?
Another book of anec-data. Another step back for the social sciences.
PS. I did not read this book of my own free will. My boss made us all read it. Sigh.
- Correlation is different than causation.
- You have to explore both sides of a premise.
- You have to look at more than one study for a given issue.
- A critical discussion in the social sciences today is how frequently fascinating, significant effects in relatively small N studies fail to be replicated in large N studies.
And, lastly, "bad stuff is good when it is good and bad when it is bad" is really not the makings of a book. When you can't tell us why dyslexia is good for someone but being a small fish in a big pond is not, that is sort of a fatal flaw to a premise. And oops! People with dyslexia are over-represented in the prison population. How does that fit in?
Another book of anec-data. Another step back for the social sciences.
PS. I did not read this book of my own free will. My boss made us all read it. Sigh.
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
As usual I was fascinated by Gladwell's insight and anecdotes illustrating how the "weak" defeating the "strong" should not come as a surprise.
I don’t agree with all his arguments here, but it was interesting and well written. 3.5 stars. (listened to the audiobook)
Another epic series of stories from the master. The world is much less black and white that it may seem. Informative, if at times disturbing because of the brutality of a few of the stories.
This was pretty good. A quick listen. A lot of the stories and anecdotes I have heard elsewhere, probably from reading articles by Gladwell and listening to him on Podcasts since this book came out quite a while ago. Very valuable messages, though.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
I loved Outliers and Blink, and have eagerly devoured many of Gladwell's columns in New Yorker and other outlets. I admire his rhetorical style, and it doesn't bother me (as it does some critics) that he has a predictable formula for turning the tables on conventional wisdom. This book is just less than the sum of its parts. Chapters on college admissions (is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?) and a championship girls' basketball team are really revelatory. Other chapters just don't fit in very well (ex. the comparison of the origin of three-strikes laws in California as illustrative of the limits of power doesn't do much for the central thesis). However, Gladwell loses focus on the central Biblical story that is supposed to hold all of these stories together into a cohesive whole, and a great deal hangs on dubious speculation about Goliath's perception and medical history. I advocate for Autism awareness, but I have an instinctual distaste for post-hoc diagnoses of Thomas Jefferson, Mozart and other luminaries of the past as on the spectrum based on biographical details. As much as I admire Gladwell, he doesn't get away with that here, either. Much of the first chapter reads like an episode of Deadliest Warrior, and as much as Gladwell wants to argue that we've all misunderstood the David and Goliath story for centuries, I don't buy it. The truths about being a David (and the perils of being a Goliath) don't turn out to be as counterintuitive as he claims. Meh.
This book turns archetypes on their head, pointing out how the underdog is sometimes really the inevitable winner with a little determination.
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Interesting viewpoint and historical facts to demonstrate that a disadvantage is not always so.