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Books : The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big DifferenceIn association with Amazon.comby: Malcolm Gladwell  List Price: $14.99 Amazon.com's Price: $8.99 You Save: $6.00 (40%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 302 EAN: 9780316346627 ISBN: 0316346624 Label: Back Bay Books Manufacturer: Back Bay Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 304 Publication Date: January 07, 2002 Publisher: Back Bay Books Studio: Back Bay Books Sales Rank: 60 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: "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 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 Average Rating:
 Rating: - Interesting stories, not that usefulWith 900 other reviews, I'll keep this one short. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is an enormously interesting read. It tries to answer the question why and how certain ideas 'tip'. How they spread and become popular. Malcolm uses a huge amount of interesting stories from different domains to try to make his points. For me, the collection of stories was probably more interesting than the points he tried to make. The stories were well written. Related to tipping, he argues ... Read More Rating:  - Fundamental ReadingWith social networking and user generated content (UGC) flooding the web, businesses are struggling to find ways to harness and direct this power. There exists an extensive collection of blogs, books, news articles and podcasts that offers advice about techniques to jump-start user adoption and gain stickiness, but these tend to focus on execution and not on concept. The dialogue generally advocates creating new communities, controlling messages within existing communities, and monetizing concepts, ... Read More Rating: - Gladwell Points Out Some Very Insightful Tips!"The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell gave me insight into trends as seen through his eyes. I loved it! Gladwell caught me off-guard when he discussed the racial tipping point that affects the real estate market of a neighborhood. But that was not the most surprising. What surprised me the most was how low a percentage of new property owners could influence the change from a sellers market to a buyers market. There were many ... Read More Rating: - powerful concept behind this bookThe concept behind this book is what makes it such a phenomenon. It was not only great concept-wise, but it was an engaging read. I wouldn't call it pure entertainment (some portions could be dry) but it was definitely easy to get through the whole thing and actually enjoy it. I recommend this book to anyone looking for more info on the idea of how things that seem obscure, go on to gain enormous popularity and spark trends or fads. Rating: - Overall a good purchase for my needsThis audio book offered lots of great information and connected the ideas to the real world of business. I found the first CD quite boring and repetitive but once that was over it offered great listening and learning. Browse for similar items by category:
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