Rating: 
Summary: An Unconvincing Presentation of a Banal Premise
Review: The crux of this book:You can mobilize lots of people given the right message, the right messengers, and the right situation. You can even modify their behavior by making small but crucial changes to their environment. ...which is entirely reasonable, but hardly worth 259 pages. The real meat lies in Gladwell's explanation of how these ideas propagate. The author ascribes the spread of fads, crazes, and other widespread social changes to contagion theory, and is quite fond of epidemiological terminology. Gladwell constructs an apparatus to conduct the epidemics. He believes that these infections are usually spread by a relatively small group of people: * Mavens - early adopters... people who see trends in their earliest phases * Salesmen - persuaders... people who can take the vision and translate it into digestible form *Connectors - social butterflies... people able to spread the virus far and wide The concept that this small group can leverage widespread popular interest winds up being elevated as "The Law of the Few." It is the first of three laws to explain social epidemics. By now, nearly everyone is aware of basic contagion theory. We all know about Typhoid Mary and Patient Zero. Some people are extremely effective at transmitting contagions. Does it really require 59 pages to extend this idea to social epidemics? The other two laws are equally underwhelming. "The Stickiness Factor" holds that some messages are inherently catchier than others. And "The Power of Context" concerns itself with the idea that setting plays a role in how the message is received and spread. Now, these are reasonable precepts, and not altogether unenlightening. I just couldn't stand the large sections spent propping up these assumptions by mostly anecdotal evidence. Gladwell has not performed any serious investigative studies to test or refine his theories. Instead, he has interviewed some people whose stories fall in line with his view of the world. Additionally, he has culled a few pieces of real scientific research and grafted them into his thesis. But only rarely do these fragments manage to convince the reader. Particularly when the study concerns biological processes and the only parallel to be drawn is metaphorical. Other reviewers have mentioned the author's omission of Chaos Theory, and also Memetics. It's disturbing that these could escape Gladwell's notice. Perhaps they were considered but rejected, since the prevailing thought in these fields could be seen to undermine the book. The introduction of Chaos Theory might have casted doubts on the ability to accurately predict or control the flow of information, thereby bruising any hope of applying the book in a practical setting. Memetics is based on the creation, propagation, and evolution of human ideas. In fact, it is a complete theory on the production and diffusion of messages (known as memes) through a population of people (abstracted as the meme pool). I would expect that Gladwell ditched any mention of Memetics because it's an alternative theory to his own, and a highly-developed one at that. Sadly, the book does not deliver on its promise: it is not a 'How To' handbook on generating social epidemics. Instead, it is only an overlong musing on the possible inner workings of such an epidemic. And not an exhaustive one at that.
Rating: 
Summary: I Tipped Over it!!
Review: I found this book to be highly informative and eye opening. It was very refreshing to find an author who takes such an interesting spin on events of the past century and then shares them with his audience in such an enthralling way. His outlook on our society makes us wonder a little more about what we would do if put in the situation in NYC that horrific night, or if we would support the man on the subway in 1984. Any book that makes me not only learn something a important about the business world and what makes people tick, but helps me to look inside myself and find out something about what makes me tick is well worth my time. I hope you find it well worth yours too!
Rating: 
Summary: Tipping towards being a great book
Review: What does Sesame Street have in common with cocaine? Not much - but they do share one thing - A Tipping Point. This book is an incredibly well-written and interesting analysis of a phenomenon, The Tipping POint, at which something turns from being an unnoticed or unpopular thing, into a phenomenon. The author successfully (and probably undisputably) applies The Tipping POint to everything from Blues Clues to HIV to shoes to smoking and a lot of other things in between. This book is not very long, but full of interesting stories, facts, trivia, and examples. You will surely come away from this book feeling like you have just learned a lot about psychology, marketing, and even diseases!
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Summary: It's the little things...
Review: Maxwell Gladstone tells us how the small details can through a customer over your way in the business world. However these principles can be carried over to the personal realm as well. A good read, however, a little vague in some instances. I recommend getting this book and adding it to your marketing library.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: This is one of the rare books that have made me think differently afterwards.
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Summary: How are idea epidemics created and sustained?
Review: This book was useful to me for profiling the means by which ideas are spread. What three characteristics cause a tipping point? What are the three rules of the tipping point? And how do connectors, mavens and salesmen move an idea forward? This book is a quick and interesting read and the short-story/anecdotal format provides a connected means for relaying important theoretical insight in a compelling and practical way.
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Summary: Important, practical insights into our current reality.
Review: A wonderful book which helped me to more clearly understand how one of my primary mentors, Buckminster Fuller, was able to achieve so much in conducting his fifty-six year experiment on behalf of all humankind to determine what one individual could achieve that could not be accomplished by any organization or institution no matter how large or powerful. After reading this book, I more fully appreciate the beauty of Fuller's operating philosophy and the courage he had to test it using himself as the Guinea pig. Like Fuller, Mr. Gladwell has uncovered and made available to the general public significant insights into how Nature works which, if we are wise, we will apply to our lives and our Planet. Over the years, I had applied what Fuller learned and taught to my life, and I plan to do the same with many of Mr. Gladwell's insights. This book once again demonstrates to me the significance of each of us as individual human beings and crewmembers aboard the planet Fuller labeled Spaceship Earth. It provides anyone reading it with advanced tools for doing more than selling more soda or marketing shoes. In this book, Mr. Gladwell has given us tools for making the positive global changes which can shift humankind's focus as Fuller mandated that we must do from weaponry to what he called "weaponry." Combining the lessons in this book with Fuller's concepts of trimtab, doing more with less, synergy and working in harmony with Nature will definitely result in the potential to create an amazing transformational leap for humankind. Thank you Mr. Gladwell for this outstanding contribution.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This book has a lot to recommend it. But I will say that if you or a loved one want to quit smoking, you have GOT to get this book. There is a fascinating chapter on why people start, and who becomes addicted, and much more.
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Summary: Fascinating, well-written, if not totally original
Review: Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" is fascinating, well-written, and entertaining, and I strongly recommend it! Numerous interesting anecdotes as well as colorful people illustrate his main thematic points (the "Law of the Few", the "Stickiness Factor", the "Power of Context") as well as his three main types of people who help to "tip"things ("Connectors", "Mavens", and "Salesmen."). The "Tipping Point" may not be totally original, as it borrows heavily from other social scientists (e.g., Philip Zimbardo's and his famous Prison Experiment; Judith Harris' excellent book -- "The Nurture Assumption" -- on the importance of "environment,"especially peers, vs "heredity" or parents) as well as precursors and relatives to the concept (e.g. the "Broken Window" theory of crime, "Six Degrees of Separation," the importance of "Weak Ties"). The particular value of Gladwell's book, however, is in drawing much of this together in a way that is at once understandable and fun to read without "dumbing down" his main idea, which is that although the world may appear to be fixed and unchangeable, it can in fact be "tipped" much easier than we think, if we can just identify where to apply leverage. This conclusion has potentially enormous implications for commerce, politics, health, education, and many other areas. For instance, if you believe that crime in the United States has "tipped" downwards due to application of a "broken windows" concept of law enforcement, this implies that both conservatives (with their heavy emphasis on "get tough on crime" policies) and liberals (with their emphasis on attacking the root social, economic, and cultural causes of crime) may both be basically wasting time and resources. Instead, Gladwell suggests, why don't we focus on things we can change quickly, at minimal cost, which could end up starting an "epidemic" and thereby achieve the intended goal at a far smaller price than otherwise? Gladwell cites only a few (but generally well-chosen) examples, such as Paul Revere's "midnight ride" (I bet most of us don't remember William Dawes, the other person who also made a midnight ride that same night - for good reason, as Gladwell illustrates) and the war on smoking, which has tried (and largely failed) to convince/coerce people not to smoke. Gladwell asks, why not shift the strategy to reducing the "stickiness" of cigarettes (by, for instance, regulating the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to a level which would not be addictive). Or, alternatively, how about using anti-depressant drugs like Zyban, which work on smoking as well? In sum, the "Tipping Point" concept could be extremely useful on this and on many other issues which take up so much time and energy in our public life in America. Gladwell's book should be a breath of fresh air to anyone tired of stale rhetoric, political gridlock in Washington, or frustration with seemingly intractable problems which, in Gladwell's view, CAN actually be solved.
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Summary: must read
Review: I'm a college student who really isn't interested in any personal reading, but this book caught my attention. The stories are fascinating and very mentally stimulating. A very addictive book.
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