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Chapter Four

PART TWO: THE THEORY OF DESIRABLE DIFFICULTY

Summary: Chapter Four: David Boies

David Boies, one of the world’s best-known trial lawyers, has dyslexia. That, Gladwell suggests, may be one of the reasons why Boies has been so successful. Dyslexia slows the brain down when it processes language. To show that this is not automatically a bad thing, Gladwell offers the example of the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), on which smart people often get the answers wrong by jumping to conclusions. Scores increase when questions are presented in hard-to-read type that forces the reader to slow down. On the CRT, difficulty reading the questions is a desirable difficulty.

Another way in which difficulty can be beneficial is by forcing us into “compensation learning”—learning that compensates for weakness. Because compensation requires focused effort, it is often stronger than “capitalization learning,” which builds on existing strength. Boies coped with his dyslexia by getting very good at listening and remembering what he hears. This makes him a formidable presence when questioning witnesses and summarizing cases for juries. Movie producer Brian Grazer is another example of dyslexia-induced compensation learning. He got used to getting bad grades in school and negotiating better grades with his teachers. He learned which arguments were most effective. Today, his negotiating skills have made him one of Hollywood’s most successful producers.

It is also possible, writes Gladwell, that children with dyslexia are more likely to grow up to be innovators. On the Big Five personality inventory, innovators typically score high in conscientiousness and openness to new experiences, but they score low in agreeableness—meaning that compared to the average person, innovators are less concerned about social approval. Someone with dyslexia may develop this personality trait as a child, by repeatedly failing to please teachers in conventional ways and thereby being forced to find unconventional ways to succeed. Dyslexia may have helped Sweden’s Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, become a stubborn, independent-minded businessman. If he had been more agreeable, he would probably not have been prepared, in the 1960s, to keep his company alive by moving his manufacturing operation to communist Poland. In the same vein, dyslexia may have made Gary Cohn willing to lie his way into a job trading stock options. Cohn went on to become president of Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s largest investment banks.

Analysis: Chapter Four

Gladwell uses dyslexia to again illustrate how presumed disadvantages can be turned into advantages, as he considers the effect childhood hardships have on a person’s success. In this chapter, he applies his David and Goliath argument to children struggling with learning disabilities, poverty, and lack of parental involvement, and Gladwell finds that these children become adults who find success despite their circumstances. Not every child will be fortunate to find the success Gladwell details in this chapter, but the argument is that adversity can generate positive outcomes. Very few people consider a dyslexia diagnosis to b an advantage, but Gladwell notes that there is a large number of successful people with dyslexia. He takes it a step further and argues that these people were successful because of dyslexia, not despite it. Gladwell introduces David Boies, a successful lawyer, to illustrate his point: because of his dyslexia, Boies is forced to come up with alternative ways to succeed. Boies’s response to the challenge posed by his dyslexia was honing his listening skills. However, success is not measured by Boises’s ability to cultivate new skills; it is measured by the degree to which he is successful at using them. Boises's success supports Gladwell’s claim that sometimes a person’s disadvantages become their greatest advantages.

Gladwell argues that some of the most famous innovators are perceived as “disagreeable” because they are not concerned with what other people think and are not afraid to go against the norm. He uses the Big Five personality inventory as he examines other factors that contribute to success. He features Ingvar Kamprad and his business model for Ikea as an example. Gladwell argues that Kamprad’s dyslexia benefitted, rather than hindered, his business decisions and success. Along the same lines, Gary Cohn’s story is important because it illustrates determination. Cohn does not let his dyslexia deter him. Most people are not willing to break established social conventions to secure a job, but Cohn was because he knew he only had one chance. Most people also do not intentionally put themselves in a position to fail, and Cohn is in a position where failure is likely. The difference is Cohn no longer fears failure. The examples Gladwell uses in this chapter ultimately illustrate how desperation ignites motivation.

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