The tipping point is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell, also the author of books like Blink & The Outliers. Mr Gladwell is recognised as one of the most influential people in the world as of now.
On the whole the book is a treatise on critical points or tipping points, points of inflexion which demarcate small and big changes. He talks about sociological phenomenon gain momentum up-to a certain level when they become unstoppable.
How much of his theory is valid is still out there in the open to be questioned but what I admit is that the man is a great author, and that the knows how to weave stories which intrigue people and then provides solutions to the same problems in forms which not only seem to make sense but also entertain the audience. This is one of the reasons for his wide public acceptance, the book sold about 1.7 Mn USD till 2006 and Mr. Gladwell charges as high as USD 40,000 for a lecture.
Mr. Gladwell in the book largely relies on case-based analysis or what we can also call anecdotal data, but the fact is that he is able to present the cases very vividly and thus be effective in almost convincing his audience, I have a saying "Anything said beautifully enough seems to make sense", I am not accussing Mr. Gladwell of propogating false theories just simply that his books seem to lack a certain academic rigour but then again, I have always been a big fan of Peter Drucker and nobody could question his intuitive analyses. Thus my relationship with Mr. Gladwell is like OK, I will listen to you but don't expect me to trust you fully till it really makes sense to me.
Mr Gladwell in the book describes, three basic rules of epidemics
1. "The law of few" - this is almost like the pareto principle, he states that the success of such social epidemics relies to a great extent on a few people with exceptional social prowess (Based on his research on experiments by Milgram). I agree with it to a great extent, seems to make sense to me =) ... he further describes these social disseminators (my invention) ;) ... as broadly belonging to following three types
a. Connectors - People who are exceptionally well connected and have a naturally knack of creating big networks
b. Mavens - People on whom we rely for new information, they are information brokers. Seth Godin describes these people as the people with Otaku - Japanese term for people with obsessive interest, I think I fall in this category.. what do you guys thinks??
c. Salesmen - These are the persuaders, people with charisma and powerful negotiation skills. People just want to agree with them ;) .... lol.. imagine living that life where everyone wants to agree with you...
2. "The Stickiness Factor" - It is the specific content of a message which renders it memorable, the message has to be vivid to be remembered. Chip Heath wrote a complete book on the topic if it interests you, the book is called "Made to Stick"
3. "Power of context" - Human beings by nature are contextual beings and react differently in different contexts, Now here is where my problem with Mr Gladwell begins... I totally agree with him on the other two points.. but here he is like saying.. well in the end it depends on luck, lol, and he wrote a book on the same concept on individual success too ;) .. also his explanations for this particular topic have both being totally demolished in Steven Levitt & Stephen J Dubner's book Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics and somehow I have a natural inclination towards the theories put forward by both of them in their books... I shall deal with these two books soon =)
People looking for good book reviews or summaries ;) ... the following are about to come soon
- Blink
- The Outliers
- Freakonomics
- Superfreakonomics
- Many others =)
If one had to read one between blink, tipping point and outliers, which would u suggest?
ReplyDeleteHaha... depends on what one is interested in.
ReplyDeleteOutliers is a beautiful book, well written and something with life learnings for everyone.
My recommendation read Outliers, also What the dog saw has had good reviews, I want to read too :)