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

disadvantage. It’s the Little Pond that
maximizes your chances to do whatever
you want.
At the time she was applying to
college, Caroline Sacks had no idea she
was taking that kind of chance with the
thing she loved. Now she does. At the
end of our talk, I asked her what would
have happened if she had chosen instead
to go to the University of Maryland—to
be, instead, a Big Fish in a Little Pond.
She answered without hesitation: “I’d
still be in science.”