The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

The tipping point the name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once. The Tipping Point is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point. Gladwell introduces this concept in a creative way and provides real life examples of how the tipping point plays a role in teenage suicide, crime in New York city, smoking and the Hush Puppy comeback. In addition, Gladwell introduces interesting patterns in human behavior. He cites scholarly articles and studies along the way.

He discusses the Broken windows theory- Wilson and Kelling argued that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes. In a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, and aggressive panhandling, are all equivalent of broken windows, invitations to more serious crimes. "It is possible to be a better person on a clean street or in a clean subway than in one littered with trash and graffiti."

He also discusses our "social channel capacity" 150 is the number that represents the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who they are and how they relate to us. Putting it another way, it's the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar.

The two above are among the numerous concepts of our behavior that Gladwell discusses. The Tipping Point can easily appeal to anyone in any field. It's entertaining and edifying and it introduces academic information in a clear and original way.

...theory about the factors that combine and cause some emerging trends to catch fire and spread.

Gladwell's strength is his ability to separate the factors and illustrate them through interesting case studies and repetition -- he turns a complex theory into something that is simple, memorable, and applicable. (Hey, he *tips* it!)

I love this book. I picked it up and couldn't stop reading. I especially loved the chapter on Mavens and Connectors, and how select bpeople can be very influential. And, lots of people I know have read it, so it's good for conversation. Get one and put it on your coffee table. Guaranteed to get people talking.

I stole my review title from my review for Gladwell's "Blink" because I feel the same way about this book. Keen insight for business and life in understanding exactly what it is that makes people, society, business, and life tick, and how you can use some basic math and logic to get the most out of your experiences. Don't get me wrong, this is not a high-mined analytical read, rather it is a well-written look at some complex info broken down into an easily digested mental snack.

Sure, I like to read. And it is a rare book that I could tell you exactly where I was when I read, X, Y or Z.

The Tipping Point created in me such a moment in my life. Some of the points are sorta "well duh" (for me anyway). However, even those points moved the 'duh' to exactly Why.

And those few 'duhs' we're overcome with a great deal of step-by-step, why's and how's on stuff I didn't see.

Certainly not a waste of your time to read this one!