3.4 out of 4 stars.
A fascinating sociology focus of when and why massive changes occur in our everyday life. If you are someone who loves marketing and the study of people then this is the book for you. If you do not like learning new facts and having “a-ha” moments then go back to the library and find something else.
Malcolm Gladwell is a writer for The New Yorker so his opinion is one that I take seriously. His point of view on social psychology are heavily researched, cut to the point, and easy to understand. He likes to talk about focuses that we all are thinking about. Gladwell pinpoints on so many huge changes (he calls them epidemics) in our day-to-day life. He includes topics like, best-selling novels, television sitcoms, smoking cigarettes, street crime, and events in history.
Of course there are a few hard-lining theories that need to be present in order for these huge tipping points to occur in order for the changes to be notable. These are titled; The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context.
The Law of the Few is the concept that certain people have a gift to spread their thoughts and interests more than others can. These people are like salesman being able to “sell” their way of living. Other labels for this minority are Mavens and Connectors. Gladwell’s comparison was Paul Revere’s ride. Paul Revere was someone who people found credible and popular so while he road through Massachusetts saying the British were coming they listened and acted as he told them to. However, there was another person (don’t even remember his name in history) that did the same ride throughout the state to alert of the British and people didn’t even look up. This was because the mystery man was unknown and had no reputation to be believable. Gladwell wanted to state that in order for an epidemic to occur there needs to be certain people involved and it cannot just be a joe schmo. An easier way for this to make sense to me is to compare it to celebrities. When sneaker brands are trying to push through a wacky new shoe they turn to celebrities to try wearing them. If a kid sees their idol sporting the wacky shoe it will give them more faith to try it on. However, give that same crazy sneaker to a less popular and credible person and it will just look bizarre and turn people away.
The Stickiness Factor is the next law that Gladwell feels needs to be included in order for a huge social change to occur. In this chapter, children’s television and virtual education for youngsters is discussed. Most stickiest thing alive if you ask me because whom didn’t always have the opening song of Dora the Explorer stuck in their head while babysitting?Shows like Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues dominate the idea of ultimate stickiness. Mechanics that were used in these programs were repetition, song, focal points, and confidence builders. All of these tactics make it easy for messages to stick to the audience listening. The larger the crowd drawn into listening and the easiness to remember the push notification allows the epidemic to continue to spread and faster. This chapter is jam-packed with other examples but I liked the children’s television shows the best because I truly believe that industry is genius when it comes to shaping how they inadvertently shove ideas on to kids.
The final must have for a tipping point to occur is The Power of Context. This is the idea that the specific circumstances in a situation make all the difference. Gladwell discusses the broken window theory. Have you ever heard of this? It is incredible. If you haven’t, it is the concept that the illusion one gives can be stronger than the actual statistics. An example given is for the city of New York. In small communities in NYC there was graffiti, broken windows, and trash all over the streets. The cops felt that they had bigger fish to fry than cleaning up small little messes. They should instead spend their time with bigger crime like robbery and rape. However, it is all the small messes that are giving the illusions to the criminals that the police officers in this area must not care. Therefore it is safe to continue one’s crime. If the messes were picked up and structure/order was put into place then the convicts would be too scared they would get caught to try anything in such an orderly place.
I loved this book but I can’t stress enough that it is very fact heavy. While I was reading it I did not feel like it was too much like a textbook but I do think that it is a great business management, marketing, psychology, sociology, etc type book that I would highly recommend if you are into any of those vast categories. I would compare it to How to Win Friends and Influence People but more specific topics.
He has a few other books that he released after “The Tipping Point” that I am not going to check out because I really enjoy changing my perspective on issues that I experience everyday. Shake things up a bit with my Ground Hog’s day life!
