Only slightly bent

I had greatly enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s later book, Blink, but I had somehow missed Tipping Point at the time it was published. This summer I thought I’d correct that mistake. Tipping Point is a fairly short book, and at just 260 small pages was a quick read – and an entirely pleasurable and interesting read.

Tipping Point is about how epidemics can suddenly “tip”, creating a huge and fast change. In the book, primarily other kind of epidemics than diseases are discussed; a lot deals with how a message is spread and how and why some products become popular while others don’t. Some case studies are given e.g. of crime in New York, television series (Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues), a couple of disease epidemics, youth smoking and finally micronesian suicides, something I hadn’t heard of before. Gladwell identifies three types of individuals who are crucial to making an epidemic tip: Connectors (people who are connected to a much larger number of people than most individuals), Mavens (active experts who act as sort of helpful, open human databases) and Salesmen (who can, obviously, convince people to do something).

Out of the case examples, I found especially the treatise of the New York crime “epidemic” fascinating; while it obviously can’t be proven why the crime rate collapsed in New York in mid-90s, I find Gladwell’s explanation of deliberately changing the environmental conditions for the better (like the immediate removal of graffiti on trains), thus creating a tipping point, quite appealing and believable. There are almost disconcertingly strong indications that the particular situation & environment (“context”) have an extremely powerful impact on people – something Gladwell calls the “Power of Context”, dedicating two chapters for that. Gripping studies are presented where, via very simple means, one can dramatically change peoples behaviour.

A lot of what is explained in the book has already found its way to being utilized and widely known; like the stickiness factor is, at least to some extent, already common knowledge among advertisers. The sad thing is that there are many valuable guidelines and instructions in “Tipping Point” which could be well utilized in many walks of life, not just in advertising. Since simple measures can have such powerful, positive impacts on crime and disease, let’s not waste this knowledge on simply promoting products. Overall, a fascinating read and definately worth reading even if it’s “already” six years old – as a rating, I’ll give this 4½ out of 5.