The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Book Review: Brings 'Sticky' Ideas to a Nexus
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book in part of one day - it's a good, quick read. Unlike some of the people who didn't care for the book - I never read the New Yorker article. It may be that the book doesn't add enough new info to excite folks who have read that article. But to me the book threw out a good number of new ideas and concepts very quickly and very clearly. I found his ability to draw a nexus between things that, on the surface seem very divergent, was very interesting, and he did it smoothly, without jumping around a lot. The thrust of the book is that there are three things that can converge to bring about dramatic and perhaps unexpectedly fast changes in our society. These are the context (the situational environment - especially when it's near the balance or 'tipping point'), the idea, and the people involved. His point is that very small changes in any or several of the context, the quality of the idea (which he calls 'stickiness', ie how well the idea sticks), or whether the idea reaches a very small group of key people can trigger a dramatic epidemic of change in society.
"In a given process or system some people matter more than others." (p.19). "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts." (p.33).
He divides these gifted people into three categories: Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople. "Sprinkled among every walk of life ... are a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are Connectors." (p. 41). "I always keep up with people." (p. 44 quoting a "Connector"). "in the case of Connectors, their ability to span many different worlds is a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy." (p.49). "The point about Connectors is that by having a foot in so many different worlds they have the effect of bringing them all together." (p.51).
"The word Maven comes from the Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge." (p. 60). "The fact that Mavens want to help, for no other reason than because they like to help, turns out to be an awfully effective way of getting someone's attention." (p.67). "The one thing that a Maven is not is a persuader. To be a Maven is to be a teacher. But it is also, even more emphatically to be a student." (p.69).
"There is also a select group of people -- Salesmen -- with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing." (p. 70). He goes on to describe an individual named Tom Gau who is a Salesman. "He seems to have some indefinable trait, something powerful and contagious and irresistible that goes beyond what comes out of his mouth, that makes people who meet him want to agree with him. It's energy. It's enthusiasm. It's charm. It's likability. It's all those things and yet something more." (p. 73).
He then goes into the importance of actually gathering empirical data about ideas, and not just relying on theory or assumption to determine quality, or as he calls it, 'stickiness.' He gives examples of where assumptions have been debunked with data. "Kids don't watch when they are stimulated and look away when they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away when they are confused." (p.102). "Children actually don't like commercials as much as we thought they did." (p. 118) "The driving force for a preschooler is not a search for novelty, like it is with older kids, it's a search for understanding and predictability." (p. 126) Hence why your three year old can watch those Barney videos over and over until the tape breaks - it becomes predictable after the third or fourth viewing. This is probably also why Barney suddenly falls out of favor when predictability is less important than novelty.
Finally, there's a point he makes he calls the rule of 150. He starts with some British anthropologists idea that brain size, neocortex size actually, is related to the ability to handle the complexities of social groups. The larger the neocortex, the larger the social group that can be managed. She then charts primate neocortex size against known average social group sizes for various primates, other than humans. Then she plugs human neocortex size into the equation, and out pops 147.8, or about 150. Now that would be not so interesting, except that he goes on to talk about this religious group, the Hutterites. They are clannish like the Amish or Mennonites, and they have a rule that when a colony approaches 150, they split into two and start a new one. He follows that by noting that Military organizations generally split companies at 150-200. And then he talks about Gore - the company that makes Goretex, among other things. They have a ~150 employee per plant rule.
"At a bigger size you have to impose complicated hierarchies and rules and regulations and formal measures to try to command loyalty and cohesion. But below 150...it is possible to achieve the same goals infomally." (p.180)
"When things get larger than that, people become strangers to one another." (p.181)
"Crossing the 150 line is a small change that can make a big difference." (p. 183)
On the whole, I thought the book sparked thought and converstaion, and will make me look at life and business a little differently. To me that's a good book.
Book Review: great exposition of a trivial point
Summary: 3 Stars
C.P. Snow popularized the notion of 2 worlds, one scientificand one humanistic. Nowhere is the existence of these twin worldsmore obvious than in the praise heaped on this book; one trade reviewer quoted by amazon.com says it "offers an incisive and piquant theory..."What, you might ask, is this undiscovered idea? Why its the principle of exponential growth, the idea that the new amount of some quantity being measured is proportional to the initial amount rather than a constant (linear) increase. This is captured in the mathematics that describes how epidemics spread, populations grow (well known to Malthus more than a century ago), radioactivity decays, and so on. And this idea lends the book its title; in an epidemic when the ratio exceeds 1 the infection will spread rapidly; hence it has passed the "tipping point".
I don't mean to demean Gladwell's book; it is actually quite well written and loaded with interesting examples of this principle at play. For this alone the book is worth reading.
But what is more illuminating than the examples Gladwell gives is what the critical response to the book says about the mathematical illiteracy of today's intellectual. Exponential growth & decay is a trivial concept to anyone who's ever taken a serious science class, even at the high school level. So the response by the learned community to so simple a concept is a profound confirmation of the reality of Snow's observation. Apparently this simple concept has escaped the intellectuals who shower accolades on this book for providing such fresh insight and perspective.
In the end I am both saddened and gladdened by this book. Gladdened because the book provides novel examples of a well-known principle in action. Saddened because the intellectual world is so surprised by a concept from the scientific/mathematic world as simple as exponential growth.
Book Review: Smart Writing
Summary: 5 Stars
Mr. Gladwell seems to be able to write about anything and do it well. I think this is the kind of material my friend Bob could build an hour long TV show around.Book Review: EXCELLENT BOOK FOR THE NON-SCIENCE OREINTED
Summary: 4 Stars
I have read many technical/scientific books on epidemics and psychology, but what sets Gladwell's book apart is the manner in which he presents his information. It is an easy read, unlike many "scientific texts" and there is much to learn from this book. I highly recommend this book to someone who is interested in psychology/society but doesn't want to get bogged down with the technical terminology.Book Review: Brilliant Mind Candy
Summary: 5 Stars
Well-written, faxcinating, offbeat and full of information no one else knows. Makes you rethink a lot of social cause and effect conventional knowledge. Ignore the carping reviews; they're just showing off.