Physical Disabilities Chapter 4 Summary

Chapter 4 talks about how people born with innate physical disabilities are able to overcome their weakness and develop their strengths. One of the main themes within the chapter is that desirable disabilities motivates us to work hard in order to succeed. The author mentions numerous examples of notable people who have dyslexia. Gladwell cited that about one third of the high level corporate executive have some form of learning disability. President of Goldman Sachs, Gary Cohen became an options trader due to his ability to act up. David Boeis trained himself to have better memory in listening to what others have to say. He eventually became one of the most successful lawyers who litigated cases such as Same Sex marriage. Most people succeed
at what they are doing from capitalisation learning while dyslexics accomplish from compensation learning. Gladwell mentioned “what is learned out of necessity is inevitably more powerful than the learning that comes easily” (63). Being “disfluent” essentially forces someone to think more deeply about something and approach issues carefully. For example a study that consisted of a couple logic problems that was conducted at multiple elite universities. One group was randomly assigned to read the problems in a clear typeface; the other had to read them in a smaller light-gray italic print. The latter group scored 29% higher, suggesting that making things harder improves cognitive performance. This study essentially proved the notion that obstacles on the surface seem to limit our results but can actually help us tap into other areas of our brain.

One of the memorable scenes is that Brian Grazer argued with his teachers in order to get a higher grade.
By learning to debate with his teacher helped prepare him for life. I drew the scene with a couple oil pastels and used the colours grey, blue, and brown. The guy standing near the black board in the green shirt is Brian and he is arguing with his professor for a better grade. I coloured the objects depicted more abstractly and not as precisely because I wanted present this piece from the perspective of a dyslexic. I used light colours and blurry shading to emphasise the fact that dyslexics have a difficult time distinguishing the difference between different shapes and objects. The darker brown color on the teacher is contrasted with the lighter warm colours. General shapes and rough outlines are drawn because they tend get lost in detail and are better at conceptual understanding. I decided to use this scene because I was inspired by Brian Grazer’s ability to persuade his teachers to give him a higher mark. This is a good example of how dyslexia forces people to think about things more deeply and communicate effectively. This reminds of the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw’s quote “the reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man” (65). His dyslexia has made him become a more proactive learner and resilient in face of
obstacles.