July Read/4

Title: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Author: Gladwell, Malcolm

Call Number: 302 G543T 2002

Subjects: Social Psychology; Contagious; Causation

Number of Pages: 301

ISBN: 9780316346627

Book Description (from back cover):

            The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

My Read:

            There are 3 things in the Law of Few, according to the author. They are: 1) Mavens who are data banks providing the message, 2) Connectors who are social glue and spread the message, and 3) Salesmen who have skills to persuade people. To make his point, the author provides cases and true events to vividly describe each role and its characteristics and what it does.

            There is this quote that I find very true and helpful. It comes from page 74. It says: If you don’t try you’ll never succeed. No matter how difficult or impossible the problem or situation is one should at least give it a try to see what works and what doesn’t. By trying and making efforts, one usually would find a way out or at least some ideas would pop up and from there things would get progress or be done.

            On page 142, the author points out that “The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from certain kind of person but from a feature of the environment. Here the author states and gives examples about how environment and situation make a person change his/her usual behavior under certain circumstances. Chinese have a saying that if only the water flows as the river goes the flow would go without any barrier. Here, the author points out how by changing the immediate details of situation can make a big difference to a person’s behavior. –page 155.

            There are plenty of fun cases and stories the author shares with his readers. It’s a good read.