Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: What Mr. Gladwell wants you to do, though, is consider how that example--of the hotornot web site, for example--parallels seemingly unrelated phenomena, such as the attraction a TV show like _Blue's Clues_ has for children, or the way in which Hush Puppies took America by storm a few years back, or, tragically, how suicide among isolated populations can become a recurring theme of adolescent angst.In all these examples, Mr. Gladwell's underlying point is that the nature of the tipping point is the same as that of the beginning of an epidemic: at what point did AIDS change from an autoimmune disease affecting a very specific subset of the population (well educated, urban gay men) to a disease that could affect any member of the human race? Mr. Gladwell's talent is that he steps back from the details of each example and continually relates the overarching theme of his book: fads, epidemics, styles, and so on can in large part be explained by an amorphous period in which something belies the seeming limitations of its origins.
Rating: 
Summary: Do not waste your money
Review: Great hype, but the guts of this book could be compacted into 3-4 pages. It's amazing that someone can inject a blatant liberal slant into what should be an entirely apolitical subject. The author strays from the subject, makes rudimentary points by droning on with silly examples. Its called fluff and filler. This is one of the few books I have read in my life in which I took away vitually nothing. You would learn more taking the money and using it to buy a video on various strategies for changing light bulbs.
Rating:
Summary: Tipping Point: Tales of the Blatantly Obvious
Review: A whole book to tell us that the author has identified situations when an idea or a fashion spreads with epidemic strength, and that he is still thinking about how and why this happens.
Guess what, all of us had already noticed in our daily lives how fashion trends and other things happen literally overnight - and all of us have tried to imagine how this was possible, and the answers, or potential answers, we came up with, are as good as those in the book.
The Tipping Point can be summarised in about 2-3 lines and is not worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This is an amazing book for anyone to read, even if you're not in a relevent business like advertising. I thought it was fascinating, I read it straight through in a few days, and found myself describing it to my friends. Very readable, very interesting. I'm sorry I've finished it, I want another.
Rating: 
Summary: Change Leaders Will Want to Read This Book
Review: "The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire." The author blends social research, marketing, and examples such as the "rebirth" of Hushpuppies, the decline of crime in New York City, the development of "Blue's Clues", and the ride of Paul Revere. He outlines three rules of epidemics and challenges us to not only observe epidemics and tipping points, but to become leaders of tipping points. A "must read" for those involved in creating and leading change!
Rating:
Summary: Acorns, Oak Trees, and Forest Fires
Review: This book has generated a great deal of attention because Gladwell approaches creative thinking from a unique perspective: he focuses on a critically important moment (a "window of opportunity") when a decision must be made and explains how to (a) prepare for that moment and then (b) make a decision which is both creative and appropriate. He describes his book as "the biography of an idea", a simple idea: the best way to understand the emergence of all major social, economic, or political forces (what Kuhn and then Barker call a "paradigm shift") "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." But first they must be activated, set in motion, more often than not by what Gladwell characterizes as a "little thing." In the Conclusion of his book, Gladwell suggests: "Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push -- in just the right place -- it can be tipped." He offers an abundance of examples. As I read the book, and began to grasp this concept, I thought of Isaac Newton and his alleged encounter with a falling apple. Also of Richard III (as portrayed by William Shakespeare) who lost a kingdom because his horse lost a shoe. You get the idea. Tipping points can occur almost anywhere at any time. Most of us fail to recognize them because of what I call "the invisibility of the obvious." They can be the result of many different factors which, in combination, can sometimes change the course of history. During the next few years, my guess is that progressively more tipping points will occur and at progressively greater velocity but that they will reveal themselves not as windows of opportunity but as blinks of a strobe light. Those who see them and then know what to do about them will probably have a decisive competitive advantage, if not dominate the world they survey.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely got me thinking but not the best written book
Review: What do you want to get out of this book? If you want to learn how to apply "buzz" to your business I would recommend "Unleashing the Ideavirus" by Seth Godin as a better starting place. "Anatomy of a Buzz" by Emanual Rosen is another book on word of mouth social behavior but I have not read it, and as a result, I can't say if it is better or worse than this book. I personally enjoyed this book because Mr. Gladwell puts a great spin around it with lots of concrete examples. I personally enjoyed Unleashing the Ideavirus more, because Mr. Godin's writing style is VERY easy to read and his sole focus is business related, especially showing how online businesses can grow leaps and bounds with word of mouth marketing. This book is about the sociological behavior of "buzz" and word of mouth advertising that causes products, locations and services to become hot commodities. On the flip side Mr. Gladwell also describes how making the NY subways clean made people feel safe and caused criminal behavior to go down when the actual police budget only increased slightly. The overall principle exposed in the book is applicable to a lot of situations and I found that reading this book caused a little lightbulb to go off in my head several times, which is why I rated the book 4 stars. It would have been five stars but it isn't that well written, which makes the book drag on at times. Although the story flow could be sometime more structured, the style is great and makes it very easy to read and very clear. Hope this helps. If anyone wants to find out some great books on business management e-mail me or look in my reviews. Peter Drucker's The Essential Drucker and Built on Trust are the two books I would start with if you want to learn about business/management better. If you are solely interested in marketing you may want to read Robert Cialdini - Influence: The Science of Persuasion (a classic); Seth Godin - The Idea Virus; Elaine Hatfield - Emotional Contagion & Richard Koch's - The 80/20 Principle Examples of social "buzz" provided in this book include the resurgence of Hush Puppies, the rise of Airwalk, New York City's crime rate, Sesame Street, Blue's Clues and the rise of teen smoking.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT WORTH THE TIME.
Review: I picked this one up and read the sleeve and said ok sounds great.
Unfortunately it was not as advertised.It seemed to be a mix of
news paper clippings and ramblings that were just simpley boring
and not very informative.You can pick up the paper and read the same thing for 25 cents.The person who wrote the sleeve has better writing skills.
Rating:
Summary: Defining "The Snowball Effect;" a worthwhile read.
Review: THE TIPPING POINT starts out with the true tale of the resurgence of the dowdy shoe, the Hush Puppie. Yep, the Hush Puppie. Why? Specifically, to identify and explain the REASON for the shoe's resurgence; a resurgence that would find Hush Puppies embraced by fashion designers and the New York club scene.
In the mid-1990s, the Hush Puppie became so unpopular that Wolverine, its manufacturer, almost discontinued the line. However, just prior to pulling the trigger on discontinuation, the Hush Puppie suddenly became all the rage and the accessory of choice. Fashion designers including Isaac Mizrahi were seen wearing the shoes. The feeding frenzy for Hush Puppies grew at such an exponential level that Wolverine saw its sales quadruple in 1996. Was this meteoric rise due to an intensive or gimicky marketing effort by the company?. Not by a long shot. The truth: a few people began wearing the shoes in downtown Manhattan clubs...to be different...and viola', the trend was sparked. (If you want to understand the mathematics behind the concept (formulation) of the tipping point, read the endnote relative to the explanation on page 12. This provides an outstanding "definition.") This is the perfect example of how many of our societal trends begin - by a few people or a few small changes stimulating different actions by populations and sub-populations. These changes comprise the concept of THE TIPPING POINT. Gladwell uses examples like the Hush Puppies craze or the drop in New York City's crime rate to demonstrate his theory of the tipping point, or the moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a certain threshold before it catches on. In other words, a very small change in a standard iteration that causes the activity or action to "snowball." What makes these things or ideas catch on is often a product of something much smaller than expected. The three rules Gladwell outlines for the reader defining the tipping point - the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context - show how a seemingly insignificant event or person can have a major effect. The "law of the few," for instance, shows that, as in the story of Paul Revere, it often takes just one person to start a movement. There are certain people in life who have a talent for bringing people together and disseminating information, and those people are often pivotal to making things happen. The "stickiness factor" is also critical - if something doesn't "stick" with people, it will never catch on. The "power of context" indicates that circumstances often affect how people behave and how well ideas or trends spread. Once again, it's often the smaller groups that affect big change.
Gladwell offers insight to a daily subject of society's subconcious and gives it a name, a definition and a scale to measure the effect. While he doesn't break new ground here, Gladwell has offered the reader insight and research into the wonderous and strange events that create "wildfires." Again, while this book will not provide any substantive education, it is a fascinating read relative to how events become events.
Rating:
Summary: simple, intelligent and very relevent - a must read
Review: I've read many of Mr. Gladwell's articles from the New Yorker and I have to say he is one of the most intiutive, intelligent and compelling writer I've ever read. I am a marketing consultant and all the principles that Mr.Gladwell talks about is applicable in the marketing world. The beauty of the book is how relevent his message is in a social-economic context, business world and personal life. The principles (the power of context, stickiness factor and others) that Gladwell bases his theory on is fundamental to understanding the motivations and behavior of people, how little things can make a big difference and how to make a good idea a successful phenomenon. It is a must read for anyone who wants to understand human behavior and use it in a professional context - certainly very useful if you are an account planner/strategic insight person in an agency.
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