The Tipping Point Audio Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Tipping Point Audio
Book Review: A tour de force of writing and thinking
Summary: 5 Stars
Like James Gleick's "Chaos" or Daniel Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence," Gladwell's book is irresistibly engaging, filled with ideas and observations that have immediate relevance to our lives. His style is almost deceptively lucid, because there's genuine scholarly rigor beneath his arguments. While he explores the latest research on social epidemics, for instance, he carefully eschews the widely discredited jargon of "memes" and "memetics." The result is a book that sheds new light on a host of subjects -- marketing, crime, education, smoking, you mame it -- without overstretching the limits of social science. "The Tipping Point" displays that highest form of intelligence: the ability to see resemblances among seemingly disparate things. Once you've read "The Tipping Point," you won't see the world in quite the same way again. Book Review: This books stays with you...
Summary: 5 Stars
I finished this book on 2 cross country flights and haven't been able to stop talking about it since. It's an easy and engaging book that you will want to recommend to everyone. Book Review: A simple concept expanded into a tedious collection of repetitive samples
Summary: 2 Stars
To be very blunt, this is an author whose writing style is enjoyable and one I would consider reading again, but this is not a book I recommend.
The principal behind the Tipping Point is neither new nor uncommon among even average business schools. Gladwell spends considerable time on a subject that could easily be condensed into a very brief commentary. I would go as far as saying that if this subject is new to you, some of the broad reviews included here will offer you enough insight on the subject to spare you the time of reading the book.
I do not enjoy providing such a harsh review, but as one who reads countless books every month, I can attest first hand that some books are not worth the time. I believe reporting both the good and bad is at the heart of the integrity of these reviews, and so this is a book I have deemed to not be worthy of your time. I give this 2 stars instead of 1 because the author is in fact eloquent and I am sure capable of quality material, just not in this instance.
Book Review: Is Malcolm Gladwell a Tipping Point?
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a really cool book. I was completely intrigued by the ideas, although I'm not completely sold. However, if anyone can describe the Tipping Point, it's Malcolm Gladwell. That guy could explain quantum physics to the short-bus crowd and they'd understand.
Here's what it is: "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point." But what it really tries to describe is that event we've all seen and wondered about, when small ideas or trends 'catch on' and become the big deal - the next big thing. If we can understand what makes that change, what pushes it over the top, then we can manipulate the markets and get rich. Unfortunately that's the book's biggest weakness as well. If everyone knows what it's going to take to push their idea or product over that threshold, then the boundaries move and the requirements change. There's really only room for so many 'tipping point' ideas in the marketplace. We can't all win in this capitalistic system, right? Not when the winners come on the backs of the losers.
So, the book describes tipping point events as epidemics and delineates them into three rules: The Law of the Few (where select people are the movers or leaders in these things), The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context. Each of this he masterfully illustrates with real world examples, from the ride of Paul Revere to Rebecca Wells' novel, Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
I loved the book and instinctively it all makes sense, but in the nature of things, the moving goalposts still bothers me. It is no wonder that Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most sought-after public speakers in America - he tells a great story and makes you believe. He might be his own tipping point.
- CV Rick, March 2008
Book Review: In defense of idealism
Summary: 4 Stars
My to-be-read list is so large that it is no longer a goal, but more of a path. I've tried to say I won't buy any more books until I make a considerable dent in the unread pile I currently own. However, my desire to dialogue with the world at large compels me to buy a few bestsellers here and there just so I'm not out of the loop.
Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference has called to me for several years now and I've read the back cover so many times now I have it memorized. I usually have some healthy skepticism about books that have been hugely popular (I prefer "healthy skepticism" to "elitism," thank you), but this book has been recommended by a variety of friends, so I finally picked it up.
The idea of a "social epidemic" is important, and the biggest lessons in this book are in the stories about people like Georgia Sadler, who utilized folklorists and hairstylists to get the word out about breast cancer and diabetes. But the book should not breed too much careless optimism: While little things CAN make a big difference, they do not always make a BIG difference. If "social epidemics" become our only goal, I fear the motivation will be lost to do the right thing just because it is the right thing. However, Gladwell does get to the heart of the matter:
"What must underlie epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus." (258)
It is that bedrock belief that is so hard to nurture, especially now. It is, I believe, the real "audacity of hope" (to borrow from current politics). So, while we might try to be one of Gladwell's "connectors" or "mavens" or "salesmen," we also need to be members of the "dreamers"--that contingent which supports the hope upon which all change rests.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in social phenomena, psychology, cultural dynamics, and/or becoming a "mover & shaker." Be sure to read the edition that includes the Afterword: "Tipping Point Lessons From the Real World" where Gladwell warns us against the "rise of Immunity" as we begin to take our technological achievements for granted.
(cross-posted)