Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath

Malcolm Gladwell's real problem: Column: ". . . . His new book chronicles how the Davids of this world possess attributes — dyslexia, small-pond-syndrome, etc. — that make them strong, while the Goliaths possess strengths that are, in fact, weaknesses. For example, Gladwell details how college applicants are better off going to their safety school than their first choice. Or why so many dyslexics end up as successful entrepreneurs. But Gladwell is a storyteller, not a scientist, which upsets more than a few pointy-headed academics. They accuse him of pawning off others' ideas as his own, or misrepresenting scholarly findings to fit a perfect narrative, when science — especially social science — is rarely so neat. . . ."

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