Gladwell's second chapter starts with a story that his most devoted fans will remember. The story of Vivek Ranadive, an amateur basketball coach of inexperienced young girls, appeared in the New Yorker on May 11 2009. (Unfortunately nothing in the book acknowledges this, which may leave readers hoping for original material frustrated).
I am reminded of Gladwell's unique style of having subchapters within chapters, giving the reader more spots to stop reading and reflect on the content of the book. Many subchapters tell a different story from the subchapter preceding them. For example, the first chapter starts about Vivek Ranadive's strategy of full court press. Then Gladwell describes Arreguin-Toft, a war historian who focuses on conflicts between large and small countries. Then he describes Lawrence of Arabia and how he managed to defeat the Ottoman Empire using unconventional tactics.
The first chapter begins strong, but it doesn't necessarily tell the story the reader wants to hear. The majority of the chapter is dedicated to details of a preteen girl's basketball team. Perhaps Gladwell thinks society should pay more attention to women's basketball than to military history. Nevertheless, Gladwell illustrates how the weak defeat the strong, the weak engage in strategies that the strong don't. Why the strong don't engage in these strategies is left unexplained.
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