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

institutions and wealthy countries—all
Goliaths—too often fall into: the school
assumes that the kinds of things that
wealth can buy always translate into
real-world advantages. They don’t, of
course. That’s the lesson of the inverted-
U curve. It is good to be bigger and
stronger than your opponent. It is not so
good to be so big and strong that you are
a sitting duck for a rock fired at 150
miles per hour. Goliath didn’t get what
he wanted, because he was too big. The
man from Hollywood was not the parent
he wanted to be, because he was too
rich. Hotchkiss is not the school it wants
to be, because its classes are too small.
We all assume that being bigger and