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The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Abacus by Malcolm Gladwell Search Malcolm Gladwell
Amazon.co.uk Review
"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of mimetics will recognise this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanise the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston", he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point", like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan
Customer Reviews:
Great book by this author
This is another great book by this author. He shows readers how little things or people can make a huge difference in our lives. They can create a social epidemic. I really like it when he analyzed three different types of people - connectors, mavens, and salespeople and how they effect change. Connectors are people who have extensive networks of individuals. Mavens are the ones with knowledge, such as teachers. And salespeople persuade us to take certain actions. A certain product can have tremendous success if it is associated with famous individuals. No wonder companies, such as Nike, hire top athletes to endorse their products. I also liked the example of how the crime in N.Y. subways was reduced as a result of arresting those who cheated on paying fares and painting the cars to cover graffiti.
This book is excellent for people who are interested in becoming more effective, especially those in marketing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market
Very carefully developed 
Another interesting book from Gladwell with a very carefully developed structure that gradually builds upon the previous examples and themes. The core concept does occasionally get a little lost as examples become more diverse but the sections are all interesting and include fascinating examples of psychology. It shows just how many aspects of life can be boiled down to core psychological issues. I'm not sure that anything in this book will actually help you predict what things will tip, but they'll make the subsequent analysis more interesting.
The tipping point..how little things can make a big difference 
I didn't it was so good...just didn't really do it for me. I found it hard to finish.
really gets you thinking
A group of us meet as a 'business book club' and this is our chosen book for the next meeting. I had read the reviews and was prepared for an interesting read but some of the reviews were negative and I wasn't sure what to expect in the end.
What I found was a book that was easy to read but kept making me think about how to apply what I was learning. The issues he raised affect not just business but society as a whole. I'm really looking forward to our book club meeting as I think this book will provide a basis for some great discussions - from building our businesses to what can be done to stop teenage suicides.
For those who haven't read the other reviews, the book is about how fashions, trends, epidemics happen. Who in society is responsible for pushing out these things? Gladwell's response is that it is down to connectors, salespeople and mavens. (Probably best to read the book to get his definition of these roles.) It gets me thinking all the time now who I know that is a connector, a salesperson and/or a maven and how do I make use of that in a positive way.
Gladwell Makes Abstract Concepts Understandable
If Malcolm Gladwell wrote about geometry, not only would I finally understand it, I would actually care. The genius of his writing style is that he takes issues that are incredibly hard to define, and provides mere mortals like myself with the ability to grasp them.
In this case, Gladwell attempts to pinpoint the moment when something goes from being relatively unknown to being something that everyone is talking about. A recent example of a tipping point would be Twitter zooming off the charts when Stephen Fry got stuck in an elevator and tweeted about it. This book was written in 2000, pre Twitter, YouTube and Facebook - three sites that have gone into the stratosphere, seemingly overnight. Malcolm Gladwell would have had a field day with them, and you can see the secrets of their success forecast in the sequences regarding similar companies.
Gladwell's commentary includes various themes - children's television, Paul Revere's ride, teen smoking and several other examples which demonstrate the spread of information. The segment on Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen is particularly fascinating.
Malcolm Gladwell has given me a whole new way to look at the people with whom I interact each day. I may not be able to predict Tipping Point in the future, but I should be able to look back and see the signs in retrospect, thanks to this brilliant, elegantly-written book. This was the first Gladwell book I've ever read, but it most assuredly will not be the last.
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Towards A Higher Man said... Have you read the book, The Tipping Point? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0349113467/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233704622&sr=8-1. Towards A higher Man Joe Owens ...
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Recension: Malcolm Gladwell Blink
Gladwells The Tipping Point (Bokus, ISBN: 0349113467) var i och för sig nästan lika pratig så det var nog bara att vänta. (För mer om den boken, se t.ex. Recension av Malcolm Gladwell "The Tipping Point".) ...
http://www.hakank.org/webblogg/archives/000976.html
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titel: the tipping point författare: malcolm gladwell isbn: 0349113467 förlag: abacus format: paperback utläst (var, datum): 2005-11-17 bktjd: 2608...
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