The Big and the Small

I just finished reading Malcom Gladwell's random collection of stories*. It was an entertaining read and there were a few interesting take-aways.

1. Remote misses can be a big advantage.
   When we encounter hard times and survive, there are 2 possible outcomes:
• A near miss - we get hurt badly, are unable to get up, and are crushed. This is bad.
• A remote miss - we get hurt, but somehow manage to overcome the difficulty and develop a layer of immunization. We might also develop strong compensating skills enroute.
There are always remote-misses in a large-scale disaster that allow us to bounce back as a community.
2. Change your pond, if it is too big
   We usually evaluate ourselves based only on the local population we are part of. When we feel like a small fish in a big pond, perhaps we should change the pond such that we are a big fish in a small pond!
3. Too much can be as crippling as too little.
   The law of diminishing returns is quite pervasive. This means that
• Having less resources might be advantageous, when you are competing against someone who has more than the optimal amount of resource.
• If you are the big guy, you can't always keep throwing more resources at a problem. After a point, it makes more sense to force a constraint instead.

In summary, If you are the underdog, you can become the champion by changing the rules to match your strengths. What looks like a disadvantage, need not be one!

*My theory is that he had a book of "stories" that was getting filled up too fast, so he decided to encash a bunch of them under the vaguely relevant title "David and Goliath". It was a fun read though.. lots of interesting stories!