Goliath Banana Bread

Today I’m deviating from my usual Wake-Up Wednesday Wins today to bring you some musings on the book I’m currently reading (David & Goliath) and an offering to join me in the book-readin’ process (Greeny Green Book Club). It’s short and sweet (just like the banana bread in that photo ;)).

David & Goliath is part of the Greeny Green Book Club I started and while it’s not outrightly about sustainability, or “green” initiatives, or global health, it may as well be for the information it offers. The following excerpt I found particularly timely with all that is going on re COVID-19.

The Advantages of Disadvantages (and the Disadvantages of Advantages)

“We spend a lot of time thinking about the ways that prestige and resources and belonging to elite institutions make us better off. We don’t spend enough time thinking about the ways in which those kinds of material advantages limit our options.”

Malcolm Gladwell, David & Goliath

The above excerpt is from Part 1: The Advantages of Disadvantages (and the Disadvantages of Advantages). In Part 1, Gladwell hypothesizes that what we think of advantages are only advantages to a certain extent, and then they become a disadvantage – if you’ve ever taken an economics course, this concept is similar to the law of diminishing returns.

On the flip side, what we think of as disadvantages can also be seen as an advantage. This is where the tie-in to the “David and Goliath” story comes into play. We’re used to thinking of David as the underdog, that he didn’t deserve to win the fight against Goliath. David had the disadvantage of being small, not a fighter, etc. while Goliath was a hulking, militarized human. Gladwell argues that in fact, David was not the “underdog” we all think he was. He used what we see as “disadvantages” to his advantage and won the fight.

Advantages/Disadvantages during COVID-19

We are witnessing a wholly new human experience with COVID. For some of us, it’s business as usual: our lives were self-sufficient before, we worked from home before, we grew our own food before. We were used to this game. Our lives remain relatively unchanged.

For a lot of us though, we have been thrown for a complete and utter loop. Our lives have been totally disrupted. We’re working from home when we never have before. We can’t go out to eat anymore. Our kids and spouses are all under one roof, every day, possibly for the first time, ever. We’re having to re-learn how to cook. Business is no longer operating as usual.

This leaves us all to wonder: how are we going to get through this? How have our supposed “advantages” been hamstringing us this whole time and how are we going to adapt moving forward? Likewise, how are the things we’ve thought of like our problems going to see us through to the other side of this thing?

These are the things I want to talk about and find answers to. How are we all reframing in light of this current crisis?

If you have answers or want to discuss this, I welcome you to join the Greeny Green Book Club with me: hang out, read books, and connect during this bizarre time. For now, stay safe and stay healthy, friends!✌🏼