Includes bibliographical references and index.

Goliath : "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" -- pt. 1. The advantages of disadvantages (and the disadvantages of advantages) -- Vivek Ranadiv�e: "It was really random. I mean, my father had never played basketball before." -- Teresa DeBrito: "My largest class was twenty-nine kids. Oh, it was fun." -- Caroline Sacks: "If I'd gone to the University of Maryland, I'd still be in science." -- pt. 2. The theory of desirable difficulty -- David Boies: You wouldn't wish dyslexia on your child. Or would you? -- Emil "Jay" Freireich: "How Jay did it, I don't know." -- Wyatt Walker: "De rabbit is de slickest o' all de animals de Lawd ever made." -- pt. 3. The limits of power -- Rosemary Lawlor: "I wasn't born that way. This was forced upon me." -- Wilma Derksen: "We have all done something dreadful in our lives, or have felt the urge to." -- Andr�e Trocm�e: "We feel obliged to tell you that there are among us a certain number of Jews."

This book uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty and the powerful and the dispossessed. In it the author challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks. He begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy (David and Goliath) those many years ago. From there, the book examines Northern Ireland's Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms, all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity. -- From book jacket.