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The Tipping Point

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

By Malcolm Gladwell

(483)

| Paperback | 9780316679077

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The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Distance Malcolm Gladwell Little Brown £14.99, pp279 Buy it at BOL Read an extract The vagaries of human preference preoccupy lofty aestheticians (who agonise about notions of good and bad taste) an ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

You too can tip the world

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference Malcolm Gladwell Little, Brown, £14.99, 279pp Buy it at BOL Read an extract Malcolm Gladwell wants to be our teacher. He has painstakingly prepared a lesson and transcribed it into book f ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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35 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

The tipping point: A book that gives you a new perspective

Tipping point is a momentum, critical point, and threshold. It described different social phenomena to show that a situation can be transformed completely even when the slightest force is applied to it, given that it is applied on the right place. It told readers that human choice is a very complica ... (continue)

Tipping point is a momentum, critical point, and threshold. It described different social phenomena to show that a situation can be transformed completely even when the slightest force is applied to it, given that it is applied on the right place. It told readers that human choice is a very complicated process which may be conscious or unconscious, subtle or obvious. The dynamic of social trend and situation are always the summation of numerous human choices, which most people have no idea about this. After reading this book, one can realize human beings always try to oversimplify and over-generalize the situation around us, though it is sometime inappropriate or stupid to do so. Therefore, we must stick with statistic and objective information to ensure that our understanding of the outside world is not formed by our emotion and perception. As a famous saying goes “It is not what a man doesn’t know that makes him a fool, but what he does know that is not true”.

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Brianho2006 said on May 10, 2008 | Add your feedback

3 people find this helpful

Love his writing. Malcolm backed up his hypothesis with a lot of evidence, without being boring. He is observant and tells us how our lives might be tipped over by just this tiny bit. I would consider this book a psychology and philosophy book as well as it makes us to reflect on issues.

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Saxyscuba said on Aug 12, 2007 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

If you want to create a Tipping Point, there are some few rules that have to be taken into consideration: the Law of Few, the Power of Context and the ability to re-frame the way we think about the world. A great book, very well written that inspired me a lot.

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Elena said on Jul 27, 2011 | Add your feedback

A book on how ideas can spread I just had to re-read. Gladwell brings his book in a structure of making a point (…) within a framework, loaded with good examples. He introduces Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, which in proportion, with the right sticky message and in the right context will start up ... (continue)

A book on how ideas can spread I just had to re-read. Gladwell brings his book in a structure of making a point (…) within a framework, loaded with good examples. He introduces Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, which in proportion, with the right sticky message and in the right context will start up a social epidemic. Not that it is an easy endeavor, but there is certain point which puts the epidemic into motion.
This easy-to-read book mentions Milgram, Leventhal and Zimbardo experiments (among others). I missed a part on Everett Rogers (while G Moore does get a mentioning) but then again there are plenty of other good referrals.
Read this if you want to know how Airwalk started to listen to the sales department and hence disappeared into oblivion; why 150 is the ideal number of a community and why seven is the magical number. And how ideas may spread.
http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/

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Jw van Eck said on Jan 28, 2012 | Add your feedback

An eye opening to understand this world from different point of views.
But are they exactly the way Malcom discribe?
I bet, nobody knows.
Recommended for those who are curious.

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xYang said on Jan 11, 2012 | Add your feedback

Tipping Point is a point crossing which the effect or outcome is substantially magnified.
It is a fascinating and innovative idea. One could put minimum effort in producing an enormous desirable effect, if one could concentrate resources on the key elements necessary for generating an epidemics. ... (continue)

Tipping Point is a point crossing which the effect or outcome is substantially magnified.
It is a fascinating and innovative idea. One could put minimum effort in producing an enormous desirable effect, if one could concentrate resources on the key elements necessary for generating an epidemics. I particularly like the psychological tests and psychiatric experiments quoted in the book, which sounded so convincing and groundbreaking. It triggered my interest in Psychology.
Key elements in creating a tipping point:
- Messenger: connector, maven, salesman
- Message: stickiness (memorable), contagious (far-reaching)
- Context (broken window theory, peer pressure)
"Mavens are data banks: they provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it... Salesmen: persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing."
"The Law of the Few says that there are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics... the lesson of stickiness is the same. There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible."
"the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your behavior"
"the examples of Salesmen and Connectors, of Paul Revere's ride and Blue's Clues, and the Rule of 150 and the New York subways cleanup and the Fundamental Attribution Error"

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Candy said on Jan 6, 2012 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

Rating:
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English Books
Paperback 280 Pages
ISBN-10: 0316679070
ISBN-13: 9780316679077
Publisher: Lb Books
Pub date: May 01, 2001
Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Others and eBook
In other languages: other languages 繁體書, 简体书, Deutsche Bücher, Libri Italiani, Svenska böcker