David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

functional.” Plus, he was a good listener.
“Listening,” he says, “is something I’ve
been doing essentially all my life. I
learned to do it because that was the
only way that I could learn. I remember
what people say. I remember words they
use.” So he would sit in class at law
school—while everyone else furiously
made notes or doodled or lapsed into
daydreams or faded in and out—
focusing on what was said and
committing what he heard to memory.
His memory by that point was a
formidable instrument. He had been
exercising it, after all, ever since his
mother read to him as a child and he
memorized what she said. His fellow