The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is an insightful, engaging and surprisingly relevant book about trends and the reasons why some things stick with society and others don't.

The best summarize the book, I believe that you would have to address the Three Rules of Epidemics. I know what you may be thinking. Epidemics? What does the Black Plague have to do with trends and fads in society? Well, first of all, no, Gladwell is not talking about illness. His definition of "epidemic" are the trends, styles, and phenomenons in society. One person creates it, passes it along to another person and the next person and the next person and so on until everyone, or the majority of people are doing it or at least know about it.

The Three Rules are the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. The Law of of the Few means that for something to even start out, there has to be those few people who spread the word. Gladwell put these "few" into 3 categories; the connectors, mavens, and salesmen. The connectors are the people who have many ties and relationships in many different groups, these are the people who can really spread the word. Mavens are the people want to help you make an informed decisions and the salesmen are the people who know to use their persuasive skills to get you to buy something or act an certain way.

The next rule is the Stickiness Factor and that means how well whatever the trend is, is perceived by people and if it "sticks" to them. To me, this is the most important factor because no matter how much a connector or salesmen talks something up, people have to actually like it and there has to be consumers or an audience taking it in for it to last. Examples that were used were Sesame Street and Blue's Clues. These shows were tested and actually proved to have a positive effect of children's cognitive development, therefore, they stuck for years.

The final rule was the Power of Context. The Power of Context is the aspect that caused the trend to tip into popularity. One point that Gladwell that I found interesting and have heard over and over is the rule of 150. It is said that you can only handle a group of 150 and actually maintain a meaningful relationship with the people on that group. Marketers sue this rule to help spread whatever it is they are trying to sell, knowing that it will spread more easily this way.

Actually, looking back on it, it is not surprising that this book, though 15 years old, is still relevant today because the psychology of people, I feel, does not change much over time and it takes the sames tricks and methods to get people to do something or believe in something now that I am sure would get them to agree to go along with something 50, 100, or ever 200 years ago.