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

branch, and his achievement was less
conspicuous than in the MP’s. If he had
failed to earn a rating while the majority
had succeeded, he had more reason to
feel a sense of personal frustration,
which could be expressed as criticism of
the promotion system.”
Stouffer’s point is that we form our
impressions not globally, by placing
ourselves in the broadest possible
context, but locally—by comparing
ourselves to people “in the same boat as
ourselves.” Our sense of how deprived
we are is relative. This is one of those
observations that is both obvious and
(upon exploration) deeply profound, and
it explains all kinds of otherwise
puzzling observations. Which do you