“How David Beats Goliath”
This piece in the current issue of the New Yorker is Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, The Tipping Point) at his very best. In a nutshell, Gladwell discusses the many cases of winning by not playing by the rules … and he doesn’t mean cheating. Gladwell points out that contests, be they sports, economics, war … , are engaged through strategies or tactics that are set as norms by the strongest players. Weaker players usually have no chance of winning if they follow these norms because those norms are set by the powerful to play into the strengths of the powerful. Weaker players do, however, have a chance if they deviate from the norms and force the powerful to “play” to other strategies. David was not “lucky” as he hurled his stone against Goliath … he simply did not choose to play Goliath’s game where Goliath was sure to win.
The Gladwell article provides as much food for thought about how we might conduct our personal and professional lives as anything I have read in a long time. And, like all of Gladwell’s writings, it is fun to read.