Tag Archives: malcolm gladwell
Conventions are made to be challenged
Are you the underdog?
Malcolm Gladwell has written a insightful article on competitive strategy on how David beats Goliath by challenging the conventions of how battles are supposed to be fought.
Using examples from basketball, military war games and anecdotes of military history Gladwell exposes ways that inferior teams have used unconventional tactics to break the rules and beat superior opponents.
How underdogs break the rules
- When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win.
- David can beat Goliath by substituting effort for ability.
- Brake the rhythm of encounters to match your speed.
- Effort can trump ability.
- Relentless effort is in fact something rarer than the ability to engage in some finely tuned act of motor coordination.
- Always challenge the conventions of how battles are supposed to be fought.
- Bring your own rules to the game.
Key Takeaway:
Effort can trump ability and conventions are made to be challenged.
Although the article doesn’t explicitly state it, speed and agility are the hallmarks of the OODA Loop created by military strategist John Boyd, which is used to get into your opponent’s decision cycle and then use speed to break his rhythm…this gives strategists a unique advantage.
If you’re interested in how you can break the rules of the game by using real-time strategic thinking I recommend your read about the OODA Loop (for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act)
10,000 Hours to success
Talent is overrated argues Malcolm Gladwell in his new book Outliers: The Story of Success Heartbreakers release . Although I have yet to read the book I’m fascinated by the idea behind the 10,000 hours needed to master a skill. Gladwell argues that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice.
“In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, “this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years… No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.”
The real path to great performance and therefore success is a matter of choice. Practice makes perfect indeed. Just make sure you practice on the things you’re passionate about.
Gladwell’s new book is generating a lot of buzz with countless interviews picking his brain:
- Slate Magazine 4 part discussion of Outliers
- Fortune Magazine Secrets of Success
- Gladwell’s Outliers website interview
- NY Mag Why we have little control over our success
For a real treat check out Fortune Magazine’s Why Talent is Overrated article from last month. It’s not about Malcolm Gladwell’s book but about the principle of deliberate practice. Uptown Girls movies District 9 psp The essence of deliberate practice is to stretch an individual beyond his or her current abilities. With examples of Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer, Chris Rock, Giants Quarterback Eli Manning to name a few you’ll find this a good read.
Malcolm Gladwell on “meaningful work”
Here’s Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink Out There on dvd discussing some finding from his new book Outliers. Here speaking at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, he gives examples of The Beatles and Bill Gates and how hard work, pouring your heart and mind into something, results in meaningful work and at the same time getting rewarded for it.
