Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point

Ever since my undergraduate studies, I’ve been extremely interested in the application of economics. Taking the suggestion of my Globalization professor in my MBA program, I decided to pick up Malcolm Gladwell’s 2000 book, The Tipping Point.

Don’t be scurred of the book simply because I started off with my declaration of love for economics – you don’t have to be an economist or even think like one to understand Gladwell. He writes more about everyday events from a sociologist perspective as opposed to an economist perspective. So fear not.

As taken from Wikipedia, The Tipping Point can be loosely defined as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point." And Gladwell takes events such as the syphilis outbreak in Baltimore in the mid-1990s or the drop in New York City’s crime-rate or the resurgence of Hush Puppies popularity and describes how each event reached a point where an epidemic broke loose. Each event has some sort of, dare I say, tipping point that keeps all metaphorical hell from breaking loose. Once you reach that point, syphilis outbreaks or crime drops or hipsters aren’t the only ones wearing Hush Puppies anymore.

When change as such happens – it happens fast. To apply an economic principle, as Gladwell does, 80% of the work is accomplished by 20% of the people. Examples he provides are 80% of beer is consumed by 20% of beer drinkers, 80% of car accidents are because of 20% of drivers, so on and so forth. A small few wear Hush Puppies, a small few practice unsafe sex in combination with other things to pass on syphilis, a small few decide to straighten up and fly right in New York – and an epidemic breaks loose once it reaches a certain boiling point.

Want to know more about the Stickiness Factor as practiced by Sesame Street or Blue’s Clues? The Power of Context in Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood? Check out the book if for no other reason than to sound smart to your friends.

April Updates

I'm going to head across the pond next week and I intend to finish a book before I come back.  I had Angela's Ashes recommended to me and, since I am going to Ireland for 10 days, I thought I would read that on the plane.  So check back and see how that goes.

Also, my sister and I had a pretty in depth discussion of the movie, Gone With The Wind, the other day and we decided to read through the book together.  Hopefully this will start in May, one of us will read a chapter and then post, then the other will read the next chapter and post.  We'll comment on each other's entries, hopefully, and encourage anyone who wants to to read along.  Sort of reviving the online book club format I had with my friends a while back.