Big fish are more likely to achieve their career goals and publish up to 5 times more than some of the best graduates of Harvard and Brown because to be in the bottom of the class in Harvard is to fail, but it is the equivalent of beating the top performers of the small ponds. Turns out, you’ll publish more and be more successful as a Big Fish in a small pond, not because of your superiority complex, but because your confidence hasn’t been shattered by the best competition. Next is whether it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond, the big pond being places like Harvard and Brown University or the top US Private High Schools. He continues the discussion using parenting and money as another example of when too much is a bad thing in terms of being an effective parent. Then the idea that smaller class sizes lead to better outcomes is disproven in Gladwell’s style of finding the evidence in facts, not myths, of why this isn’t the case. Gladwell examines the press play in basketball matches and demonstrates how Davids how beat Goliaths by being more determined, willing to do the hard work and thinking differently. “the powerful and strong are not always what they seem” “There is a set of advantages that have to do with material resources, and there are a set that have to do with the absence of material resources.” Knowing how to identify that weakness to your advantage is how you become David. Gladwell proposes that what gives a giant its strength can also be its greatest weakness. But as you read on you find it is also a basketball team, an education model, impressionist painting, the ability to read, experiencing the death of a parent before the age of 15, power to name a few. Giants can be such things as a disability, misfortune or oppression. Gladwell opens with a re-telling of the classic story of David and Goliath and then goes onto to explain all of the historical inaccuracies in the tale and how this has shaped our understanding of what it takes to beat a giant. Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants

David and goliath chapters