The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Book Review - 3.5 Stars

It has taken me a long time to finish reading "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make  A Big Difference" after buying it at London Euston many years ago before I came back to Birmingham on the train.

I started the book several times but it does seem a conundrum about why a book about viral ideas didn't seem to be going viral with me when everyone else was rushing to read it and many raving about The Tipping Point.

As I write this review, Amazon.com shows 1,040 reviews for The Tipping Point with 518 at five stars and 300 at four stars. These are huge numbers when I am normally impressed if a book has been reviewed 20 times.

The main idea is that ideas, trends and social behaviours can cross a threshold. Before the threshold, growth is slow but after the threshold - or tipping point - growth becomes exponential.

The three critical concepts that the Tipping Point are based on are:

1. The law of the few - how connectors (people who know a lot of other people), mavens (trusted experts) and salesmen (evangelists) can spread ideas quickly and effectively.
    
   
2. The stickiness factor of the idea - how well the concept is able to stay true and pass from one to another.
    
   
3. The power of context - how the idea fits with the prevailing environment.

The book is certainly wide-ranging from innocent activities like educational TV for children through to how syphilis, crime and drug taking spread through disadvantaged communities and ending in teenage suicide epidemics.     

But for me that was part of the part.

I was reading the book to learn about how business ideas can spread quickly and effectively. The Tipping Point tells the story of Hush Puppies and Airwalk sneakers but I wanted more.

The heart of the book lies in the three factors which are little more than common sense and it is well padded with stories that will appeal more to the American market than elsewhere.

My Review Rating Of The Tipping Point

I have rated the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell at the 3.5 star level.

It is packed with thought-provoking studies of many different social issues but for some reason I found it much easier to put down than to pick up.

A book about compelling ideas should have been much more compelling to me but it has taken about five years to complete and about four months of starting and stopping. I finally took the book away on holiday with me sure that the Tipping Point contained secrets that I wanted and needed to know.

I never found them but hundreds of Amazon reviewers are raving about The Tipping Point so I am happy to accept that it is me that is wrong.

You can find out for yourself by reading The Tipping Point - available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (affiliate links).

Have You Read The Tipping Point?

If you have read the Tipping Point, I am very interested to hear what you think.

A number of the adverse Amazon reviews for The Tipping Point recommended The Anatomy of Buzz (affiliate link) which I haven't read but which might appeal more to the business book reader.

It has been added to my list of books to read at some time.