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

with a serious disability cannot master
all those steps. But those who can are
better off than they would have been
otherwise, because what is learned out
of necessity is inevitably more powerful
than the learning that comes easily.
It is striking how often successful
dyslexics tell versions of this same
compensation story. “It was horrible to
be in school,” a man named Brian
Grazer told me. “My body chemistry
would always change. I would be
anxious, really anxious. It would take
forever to do a simple homework
assignment. I would spend hours
daydreaming because I couldn’t really
read the words. You’d find yourself
sitting in one place for an hour and a half