[.ca] The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big ... (ISBN 1600240054)

From Amazon.com:
"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

The Hard Part Is Choosing What To Do First:
I was drawn into this book from the moment I cracked the spine. Each and every example had a very compelling start and story that left you wanting to talk to someone about what you had just learned. The topics are varied and range from Paul Revere's network to a syphilis outbreak in Baltimore to Blues Clues the children's t.v. program that made small changes to Sesame Street's premise and is revolutionized preschool education. Every time I took a break from reading I was thinking of how I could apply this "the little things matter" to my business and I guarantee you will do the same. It positively gets your creative juices flowing and I found I felt less likely to shoot down an idea but more likely to embrace it and try to find the workable nugget hidden there. Anyone who reads this book will come out of it with something, and that something may very well revolutionize your business, life or community.

A fun and very interesting book:
I liked The Tipping Point very much. Gladwell does an excellent job explaining how "Word of Mouth" epidemics/"Fads" start, who contributes to creating it and who spreads the fad to make it known worldwide. I learned alot regarding teen smoking and how we have the power to counteract this horrible habit. In essence, Tipping Point is about social epidemics and how even the little things that people would seem to think are irrelevent may create big changes. Tipping Point is for the reader who is curious about how ppl think and how we as a whole nation think. An excellent book in which I have no doubt you will come out with many lessons.

I Just Tipped!:
When I published my own book a while back, my daughter gave me The Tipping Point to read. Even though I am a spiritual author, and generally only read books by other spiritual authors, I found this "secular" book to be very inspiring. In my work, I teach that there is a next right step that you are always being "divinely guided" to take -- a step that will help you fulfill your hearts desires in an effortless manner. That step is invariably a small step -- a tiny step, even. But those tiny steps, when taken one after another, prove to be miraculously effective. The Tipping Point contains story after story that verify that fact. I recommend it to you because it will bolster your confidence to keep on doing all those little things that may one day lead to your own tipping point . . . to that point where things just seem to take off on their own. It happened to me. Last fall my book suddenly, and unexpectedly, rose to the top 1% of all books sold on Amazon.com in the U.S. Steven Lane Taylor, author of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat: A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow"

Excellent Book:
In this book, Gladwell does a great job of explaining the tipping points of trends, fads, disease, etc, -basically any event imaginable. If we look close enough in our everyday lives we'll see the tipping point. After reading this book you should be able to see where it is exactly (almost) that mistakes are made, or good decisions are made. Great read -an eye opener for sure! (The idea is what attracts me as opposed to those that rate a book on the writing style, etc, especially for this style of information book.)

100 Monkeys Revisited:
Tipping Point is an excellent read. An engaging style sprinkled with humor and human interest make it flow easily. It reminds me of the concept of "100 Monkeys," whereby an idea gets to a critical point and suddenly becomes omnipresent. Anyone in business or marketing will enjoy the read and practical suggestions, direct and indirect, about promotion. Gladwell shows us all how easily our collective and individual psyches are manipulated. Budding psychologists and those interested in our inherent foibles will find the read entertaining and informative.