| name | The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference |
|---|---|
| image |  |
| image caption | Bay Back Books Edition |
| author | Malcolm Gladwell |
| country | United States |
| language | English |
| genre | Non-Fiction |
| publisher | Little, Brown |
| release date | 2000 |
| media type | Print (Paperback) |
| pages | 304 |
| isbn | 0316346624 |
By offering readers a groundbreaking analysis of how trends are sparked and take carry, Malcolm Gladwell ’ s book The Tipping Point became an exemplification of the very processes he was describing. Upon its 2000 publish, the bible became a national best seller whose influence would help to initiate paradigm shifts in fields ranging from marketing to public health. The processes and mechanisms by which some trends achieve exponential popularity while others sputter and fade into oblivion have long been thought to be cryptic and immune to analysis. however, Gladwell ’ mho central argumentation is that there are actually a number of patterns and factors that are at play in about every influential course, ranging from the unfold of catching diseases to the unprecedented popularity of a particular children ’ randomness television receiver show. If you analyze the development of any major phenomenon, the author suggests, you will find that the processes involved are strikingly similar.
Reading: The Tipping Point
The nature of modern culture is such that many new ideas are constantly being introduced from a wide assortment of sources, ranging from trendsetting teens and twenty-somethings in the nation ’ s metropolitan centers to newly product offerings from established corporations. Some of these achieve a meter of steady, reproducible success, some fail, and some take off on an up trajectory of exponential popularity and influence. Based on his in-depth research spanning a number of different fields, industries, and scholarly disciplines, Gladwell identifies three key factors that each play in role in determining whether a particular vogue will “ gratuity ” into wide-scale popularity. Gladwell ’ s discussion and example of the concepts of the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context comprise the majority of the book. The Law of the Few contends that before widespread popularity can be attained, a few cardinal types of people must champion an estimate, concept, or merchandise before it can reach the topple degree. Gladwell describes these key types as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. If individuals representing all three of these groups endorse and advocate a new estimate, it is much more likely that it will tip into exponential success. Gladwell defines the Stickiness Factor as the quality that compels people to pay close, sustained attention to a product, concept, or mind. Stickiness is heavily to define, and its presence or absence much depends heavily on context. Often, the way that the Stickiness Factor is generated is unconventional, unexpected, and contrary to welcome wisdom. The concept that Gladwell terms the Power of Context is enormously important in determining whether a particular phenomenon will tip into far-flung popularity. even hour changes in the environment can play a major gene in the leaning of a given concept attaining the tip detail. besides, Gladwell defines the term context identical broadly, discussing the implications of little variations in social groups and minor changes in a neighborhood or community environment as shifts that can cause a new theme to tip. After identifying and describing these samara concepts, Gladwell dedicates the remainder of the bible to illustrating them and their mutuality in a series of compelling case studies and examples. An afterword included in the newest edition of the book updates some of Gladwell ’ s arguments for more apposite application in an era of far-flung Internet connectivity .
Chapter Summaries
Introduction
Gladwell begins by discussing the inexplicable revival of then-terminally-uncool Hush Puppies shoes among a handful of hipsters in Manhattan ’ s up-to-date enclaves in the 1990s, a drift which soon spread across the United States and resulted in exponential increases in the company ’ s sales. Using this phenomenon as an initiation to the koran ’ s analytic subject, the generator states that he will identify, analyze and explain the mechanisms by which certain trends take hold, while others fail .
Chapter One: The Three Rules of Epidemics
Gladwell asserts that most trends, styles, and phenomena are born and spread according to routes of transmission and conveyance that are strikingly similar. In most of these scenarios, whether the event in interrogate is the outspread of syphilis in Baltimore ’ s mean streets or the sudden spike in the popularity of Hush Puppies sales, there is a crucial juncture, which Gladwell terms the “ tipping point, ” that signals a key moment of crystallization that unifies isolated events into a meaning tendency. What factors decide whether a particular drift or convention will take hold ? Gladwell introduces three variables that determine whether and when the tiptoe charge will be achieved. The three “ rules of epidemics ” that Gladwell identifies are : the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. He concludes the chapter with a preliminary discussion of the Law of the Few, noting that the origins of most major epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases can be traced back to the disproportionate charm of a few “ ace infectors ” who are personally creditworthy for dozens, or in some cases, hundreds of transmissions. This function is analogous to the category of people that Gladwell identifies as “ Connectors, ” who play an excessive role in helping modern trends begin to “ tip, ” or spread quickly .
Chapter Two: The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen
The skill of the tipping point that transforms a phenomenon into an influential swerve normally requires the intervention of a total of influential types of people. In the disease epidemic model Gladwell introduced in chapter 1, he demonstrated that many outbreaks could be traced back to a small group of infectors. Likewise, on the path toward the tap target, many trends are usher into popularity by modest groups of individuals that can be classified as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors are individuals who have ties in many different realms and act as conduits between them, helping to engender connections, relationships, and “cross-fertilization” that otherwise might not have ever occurred.
are individuals who have ties in many different realms and act as conduits between them, helping to engender connections, relationships, and “ cross-fertilization ” that otherwise might not have ever occurred. Mavens are people who have a strong compulsion to help other consumers by helping them make informed decisions.
are people who have a strong compulsion to help other consumers by helping them make inform decisions. Salesmen are people whose unusual charisma allows them to be extremely persuasive in inducing others’ buying decisions and behaviors. Gladwell identifies a number of examples of past trends and events that hinged on the influence and involvement of Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen at key moments in their development.
Chapter Three: The Stickiness Factor: Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues, and the Educational Virus
are people whose unusual charisma allows them to be extremely persuasive in inducing others ’ buy decisions and behaviors. Gladwell identifies a number of examples of past trends and events that hinged on the influence and involvement of Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen at key moments in their development. Another crucial component that plays a key character in determining whether a course will attain exponential popularity is what Gladwell terms “ the stickiness factor. ” This refers to a singular choice that compels the phenomenon to “ cling ” in the minds of the populace and influence their future behavior.
An interest element of stickiness, as defined by Gladwell, is the fact that it is often counterintuitive, or contradictory to the prevail conventional wisdom of solomon. To illustrate this point, Gladwell undertakes an in-depth discussion of the development of children ’ s television receiver between the 1960s and the 2000s. The PBS show Sesame Street represented a vast improvement in the “stickiness” of children’s television, in large part because it turned many of the long-established assumptions about children’s cognitive abilities and television-watching behaviors on their heads. These changes, based in large part on extensive research, resulted in a show that actually helped toddlers and preschoolers develop literacy.
The PBS testify Sesame Street represented a huge improvement in the “ stickiness ” of children ’ mho television, in boastfully contribution because it turned many of the long-established assumptions about children ’ sulfur cognitive abilities and television-watching behaviors on their heads. These changes, based in big partially on across-the-board research, resulted in a show that actually helped toddlers and preschoolers develop literacy. Years later, the television show Blue’s Clues applied many of these same techniques as Sesame Street itself, resulting in the development of a program that research has shown can generate significant improvements in children’s logic and reasoning abilities. The attribute of stickiness, Gladwell argues, often represents a dramatic divergence from the conventional wisdom of the era.
Chapter Four: The Power of Context (Part One): Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York
City Crime Years later, the television prove Blue ’ s Clues applied many of these same techniques as Sesame Street itself, resulting in the development of a broadcast that inquiry has shown can generate significant improvements in children ’ second logic and reasoning abilities. The attribute of stickiness, Gladwell argues, much represents a dramatic divergence from the conventional wisdom of the era. Another crucial aspect of the complex processes and mechanisms that cause trends to “ tip ” into mass popularity is what Gladwell terms the Power of Context. If the environment or historic moment in which a tendency is introduced is not right, it is not vitamin a probable that the tipping point will be attained. To illustrate the ability of context, Gladwell takes on the queerly rapid decline in fierce crime rates that occurred in the 1990s in New York City. Although Gladwell acknowledges that a wide-eyed variety of complex factors and variables probable played a function in sparking the decline, he argues convincingly that it was a few small but influential changes in the environment of the city that allowed these factors to tip into a major decrease in crime. He cites the fact that a number of New York City agencies began to make decisions based on the Broken Windows hypothesis, which held that minor, unbridled signs of deterioration in a region or community could, over time, consequence in major declines in the quality of know. To reverse these trends, city authorities started focusing on apparently belittled goals like painting over graffito, cracking down on underpass price skippers, and dissuading public acts of corruption. Gladwell contends that these changes in the environment allowed the other factors, like the decline in snap cocaine consumption and the age of the population, to gradually tip into a major descent in the crime rate in the city .
Chapter Five: The Power of Context (Part Two): The Magic Number One Hundred and Fifty
clearly, in order for a swerve to tip into massive popularity, bombastic numbers of people need to embrace it. however, Gladwell points out that groups of certain sizes and sealed types can often be uniquely conducive to achieving the tip point. He traces the path of the novel The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood from regional cult favorite to national best-seller. Gladwell notes that the alone content of the novel appealed powerfully to reading groups of middle-aged women in Northern California, and that these women were uniquely well-positioned to catapult the ledger to national success as a result of an cozy campaign of recommendations and advocacy. Gladwell besides remarks upon the strange properties tied to the size of social groups. Groups of less than 150 members normally display a level of affair, mutuality, and efficiency that begins to dissipate markedly angstrom soon as the group ’ s size increases over 150. This concept has been exploited by a number of corporations that use it as the foundation of their organizational structures and marketing campaigns .
Chapter Six: Case Study: Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation
In this case study-oriented chapter, Gladwell discusses the rise and decline of Airwalk shoes. The trade name was originally geared towards the skateboarding subculture of Southern California, but sought to transcend this recess market and attain national name recognition. They succeeded in this attempt with the help of an advertise agency with a unique agreement of the factors and variables that influence the populace ’ s perception of “ coolness. ” The marketing campaign ruthlessly honed in on and exploited several timely avatars of coldness, such as Tibetan Buddhism, pachuco gang acculturation, and hipsters ’ ironic embrace of preppy culture, rendering Airwalk shoes cool by association in the summons. The party ’ south singular scheme of offering unique products to boutique stores and a more mainstream shoe selection to department stores had farseeing keep both up-to-date hipsters and their more mainstream, impressionable counterparts content. however, as a cost-cutting measure, Airwalk finally began providing all of its distributors with a individual course of shoes. The delicate balance that had long rendered the party ’ second products cool in the minds of the public was disturbed, and sales declined importantly .
Chapter Seven: Case Study: Suicide, Smoking, and the Search for the Unsticky Cigarette
In another case study, Gladwell discusses the relationship between a sudden, alarming emanation in suicide among adolescent males in Micronesia and the haunting problem of adolescent cigarette manipulation in the United States. In both instances, teens were induced to become byzantine in potentially deadly experiment. Gladwell asserts that both trends were predicated upon two main factors. First, teenagers are inherently, possibly even genetically predisposed to imitate others and try on raw behaviors and attitudes during adolescence. Second, the types of the people who are more likely to engage in dramatic, easily romanticized demeanor such as early cigarette fume or suicide are besides more likely to be those that others tend to gravitate toward and seek to emulate. Gladwell besides considers the origins and implications of the curiously bombastic in-between ground that exists between those who abstain all in all from potentially dangerous activities, and those who engage in them in a systematically low-level manner. In terms of cigarette use, these “ chippers ” typically never smoke adequate to tip into full-blown addiction, and therefore escape most of the ill effects of long-run tobacco use. Gladwell suggests that infrequent adolescent experiment with drugs or smoke should not be regarded with hysteria, but rather, should be accepted as inevitable and is, in all likelihood, benign .
Chapter Eight: Conclusion: Focus, Test, Believe
In this chapter, Gladwell concludes with an account of the type of solution that reflects an reason of the concept of the tipping steer : A nurse seeking an effective, low-cost room to raise summit cancer awareness among african-american women shunned traditional routes and enlisted the assistant of hairstylists. In this environment, she reasoned, most people are relaxed and receptive to new information in a way that most education efforts can ’ t duplicate.
Gladwell acknowledges that this type of think is often derided as being a “ band-aid ” solution that treats symptoms, quite than underlying problems. however, he asserts that these solutions are often the very type of accumulative, low-key overture that can, over fourth dimension, build to a tipping distributor point of massive popularity and influence .
Afterword
In the newly-penned afterword to The Tipping Point, Gladwell updates a number of the lawsuit studies and anecdotes offered in the original text with newfangled data. He besides reconsiders the role of the Internet and Internet-related technologies, such as e-mail, and their impact upon the spread of trends and influence. however, he cautions that the overuse and sheer ubiquity of these formats can make the recipients “ immune ” to their effects .
