David vs Goliath- What Color is Your Slingshot?

In “David and Goliath”, Malcolm Gladwell’s recent best-seller, he writes about underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants. As the back cover explains:

“Three thousands years ago on a battelfield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David’s victory was improbable and miraculous. he shouldn't have won. Or should he have?”

The stories Gladwell recounts in David and Goliath illustrate the point that speed and surprise are often superior to size and strength in battles, if the underdog knows how to turn disadvantages into advantages. David’s ability to launch a stone with a slingshot at a target 35m away with the impact and accuracy of a 45mm bullet overcame his disadvantage of small size and lack of battle experience. Goliath’s advantages of size, armour, weapons and strength were turned into disadvantages by his slowness and blurred vision, due to acromegaly caused by a tumour on the thyroid.

So, while Damon Runyon sarcastically noted that:

“The race may not always be to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but it pays to bet that way”,