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Loading... The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Differenceby Malcolm GladwellLibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Gladwell really makes you think--and that's high praise. And it's very readable-no pretension. Well worth reading. (  ) NellieMc | Nov 8, 2009 |  Although I did not connect with the issues in this book as strongly as Blink and Outliers, I did enjoy reading it all the same. ( ) tony_landis | Sep 29, 2009 | Gladwell proposes here that ideas, information, and behaviors act like an epidemic, starting small and spreading until they reach a certain threshold, the "tipping point". Although I enjoy Gladwell's clear, conversational writing and thought he had some interesting ideas, I was less taken with this than I was with _Blink_. Much of what he talks about in this book has to do with marketing and advertising, and I just don't find those compelling topics, as opposed to, say, _Blink_'s discussion of unconscious racism and ideas for how to combat that. It was an entertaining read generally, but it's not a book I'm going to be thinking about a lot after finishing it. (  ) gwyneira | Sep 28, 2009 | September 24, 2002 If you are looking for a collection of unusual stories and pseudo-scientific tales to entertain your friends during the next party or dinner, this is the book you are looking for. But if you like real books, i.e. a collection of pages that constitutes a single, valuable, interesting object, then this is not for you. Some of the examples from Malcom Gladwell extend over several pages, for no reason. Each basic concept is repeated so many times giving the impression the author is talking to a dummy reader, not to a "normal" person. In conclusion, Malcom's book seems to be more a first draft than a finished work. The style is not consistent across chapters, and the connections between chapters and topics is weak. (  ) folini | Aug 27, 2009 | Great idea - small factors can tip a small change into a runaway effect - and well written. But I can't get away from the idea that this was better suited to a long feature-article essay rather than a book. But, the guy can write, and a lot more thought has gone into this slim volume than meets the eye. I will be reading more Gladwell. Read August 2009. ( ) mbmackay | Aug 18, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0316346624, Paperback)"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you. Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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