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1.64k reviews for:
David Y Goliat: Desvalidos, Inadaptados Y El Arte de Luchar Contra Gigantes / David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell
3.82 AVERAGE
1.64k reviews for:
David Y Goliat: Desvalidos, Inadaptados Y El Arte de Luchar Contra Gigantes / David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell
3.82 AVERAGE
Curious and thought provoking...many stories, well told, about advantages and disadvatages, resiliency and fear, but the threads didn't come together. Was he encouraging empathy and forgiveness? Or tenacity and the willingness to be a little shady for the greater good? An interesting if not cohesive read.
I can't stop telling people about this book. It's fascinating! Not sure I agree with all of the conclusions, but I really enjoyed learning about different historical events and seeing a new point of view.
I listened on audio, and Malcolm Gladwell did a great job narrating.
I listened on audio, and Malcolm Gladwell did a great job narrating.
Started out swell, faded back to mediocre. The swell parts -- for me about college applications strategies and civil rights movement tactics -- were illuminating though. I'm glad I read it.
Fairly standard Malcolm Gladwell. He examines when/whether a disadvantage is an advantage.
Entertaining anecdotes and storytelling, hard to tell how much hard evidence there is behind some of the conclusions.
I was surprised at how engaging Gladwell is as the voice of the audiobook, and I do especially love hearing the authors words through the authors voice.
I was surprised at how engaging Gladwell is as the voice of the audiobook, and I do especially love hearing the authors words through the authors voice.
I very much enjoyed this book. To me, Malcolm Gladwell is a unique story teller - someone who contextualizes the intimate portraits of the people he profiles within the social, historical, and political circumstances in which they lived. The premise of this book is that what we often times see as our strengths can actually be a disadvantage, and what we oftentimes see as a disadvantage, can actually be a strength.
I particularly enjoyed his analysis of the impact of small classroom size on learning, how dyslexia might be a "desirable disadvantage," how Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders created social change through their marginalized positions, and how the bombing of England by Germany in World War II produced a resilient population through the theory of "remote misses." But the "big pond" theory was tremendous and worth the read in and of itself. In essence, he argues that for some, being a big fish in a small pond can be a tremendous advantage, while we often think the reverse is true - particularly in higher education. The discussion of the Salon in France and the parallels to Ivy League undergraduate education in the US today were compelling.
I particularly enjoyed his analysis of the impact of small classroom size on learning, how dyslexia might be a "desirable disadvantage," how Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders created social change through their marginalized positions, and how the bombing of England by Germany in World War II produced a resilient population through the theory of "remote misses." But the "big pond" theory was tremendous and worth the read in and of itself. In essence, he argues that for some, being a big fish in a small pond can be a tremendous advantage, while we often think the reverse is true - particularly in higher education. The discussion of the Salon in France and the parallels to Ivy League undergraduate education in the US today were compelling.
I really liked this one; I love contrarian thought experiments especially when applied to social issues and I found every word of this book fascinating.
There's been a lot of negativity around this book, which seems to come with the territory when we get into the world of behavioral economics because people don't always behave rationally. Do I think Gladwell's conclusions are iron-clad and stand up to every criticism? Of course not. I do think they hold enough merit to warrant discussion, though, and this book was full of those discussions. Only by stretching the limits of what we believe to be true can we draw firm lines around our personal beliefs, and this book is an exercise in that.
I listened to the audiobook version and was a bit nervous since I didn't know how much data would be in here, but it was a good medium and I was happy Gladwell narrated it himself. He did a good job conveying the numbers and statistics, though it wasn't super heavy in them. Gladwell is an amazing storyteller, somehow combining stories of Nazi resistance, elite college vs. very good college choices, the civil rights movement, and the 3-strikes law into an eminently palatable narrative that all tied back to his central theses - we humans are very bad at recognizing when something is too much and the U-curve will always reign supreme.
I loved this one so much, I'm actually going to listen to it all over again which is something I rarely do with any book.
There's been a lot of negativity around this book, which seems to come with the territory when we get into the world of behavioral economics because people don't always behave rationally. Do I think Gladwell's conclusions are iron-clad and stand up to every criticism? Of course not. I do think they hold enough merit to warrant discussion, though, and this book was full of those discussions. Only by stretching the limits of what we believe to be true can we draw firm lines around our personal beliefs, and this book is an exercise in that.
I listened to the audiobook version and was a bit nervous since I didn't know how much data would be in here, but it was a good medium and I was happy Gladwell narrated it himself. He did a good job conveying the numbers and statistics, though it wasn't super heavy in them. Gladwell is an amazing storyteller, somehow combining stories of Nazi resistance, elite college vs. very good college choices, the civil rights movement, and the 3-strikes law into an eminently palatable narrative that all tied back to his central theses - we humans are very bad at recognizing when something is too much and the U-curve will always reign supreme.
I loved this one so much, I'm actually going to listen to it all over again which is something I rarely do with any book.
Interesting read but a lot of the time felt a bit off topic. I picked this book up because firstly I’ve enjoyed my previous Malcolm Gladwell reads and secondly because I wanted some ideas, strategies and inspiration for how to fight against a Goliath / status quo in real life. Therefore I can’t say I learned much for my personal situation. But I still enjoyed the book and learned a bit of history in the process.
The first analysis of the David and Goliath story is very interesting. The rest of the stories are interesting to find out about but many are not actually proving the point Gladwell is trying to make. I am not saying that the ideas are bad but the examples used are weak and could be interpreted in any way you like. Cool stories though. Weak logic.
I’ve dipped in and out of this volume many times since I first opened it. It has taken me ages to get to the end. From that you can tell that the writing did not hold my attention. It was good in the more concise parts, but elsewhere rambled in such a way that my memory did not hold onto the current sub-plot, even over the last few weeks in which I’ve made a real effort to get to the end. In this limited number of cases I can see the point that underdogs can succeed but there is hardly the evidence to make a general case for that being a universal truth!