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If you want a good book that keeps you locked in without tugging at your heartstrings or causes you to fear what is going to happen next? Well, look no further! The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is a remarkably in-depth read that will force you to take a new view on the mundane and simple ways of our lives. Gladwell takes concepts, issues, and events that we would generally never consider as odd or socially stimulating and brings them to a new light. If you don't believe me, believe Fortune magazine who wrote, The Tipping Point is "a fascinating read that makes you see the world in a different way." Seattle Times said it was "undeniable compelling...Terrifically rewarding." How can you turn down a good read that will have you thinking and keep you pulled in until the end? If that hasn't got you running to put your shoes on to trot on down to the bookstore, think about this. If you read this book you can learn and understand how trends take hold, and you can save your child and others from being sucked in to a bad and unappealing fad - THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! This book explains perfectly why some people in life are more successful, why disease spreads so rapidly - for all you ebola obsessed out there - or how a small trend or fad can take hold in the public eye and explode across a nation. Wow, if you don't think that sounds interesting then there is nothing more I can say to convince you
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Cartoon Malcolm Gladwell Says to buy this book...You cannot deny him....Not when he's rocking that hair!
In the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, as I have discussed in previous chapters, is a very interesting writer with very interesting points to be made. As I have read on through the book, I cannot removed my focus away from the law of the few. The law of the few states that to make something spread through a mass population at a rapid speed, you only truly need a few people with likable attributes to do so.
A wildly known example of the law of the few is Paul Revere. We all know the story of how Paul Revere rode through every town on his way to Lexington, warning everyone that the British were on the march. Now, the information that Revere had spread like wildfire; quickly form town to town. When the British arrived they were met with tough and organized opposition from the men who had been warned on Revere's Midnight Ride.
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
However, the story that didn't make the history books was that of William Dawes, who took the opposite route of Revere, with the same information. Yet, oddly enough when he gave the information it did not spread like wildfire as it did with Revere. Instead, it didn't really spread at all and the route of Dawes wasn't informed or prepared until it was too late.
The less famous William Dawes
I'm sure you're wondering, as I was when I read this, why that is. Well Gladwell, as he so perfectly does, explains why that is. The only reason that Paul Revere's ride was remembered and why his news spread like an epidemic is because Dawes and Revere were two entirely different people.
Apparently, as Gladwell explains, Paul Revere was more sociable and charming then Dawes so he knew more people who trusted him and listened to him because of their opinion of him. Therefore that is why we hear about The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, and not The Midnight Ride of William Dawes.
Another subject that I found interesting was Gladwell's idea of connectors, or people who are at the pyramid of relationships. Gladwell says that connectors are people who, if you haven't already guessed, connect us to our acquaintances and friends. As Gladwell puts it, our friends are not really our friends but the friends of the connectors who we have been invited by them to know.
A connector is a person who has attributes and personality traits that instantly draw in people of all walks of life. Connectors are the people you meet and instantly like and want to get to know better. Without connectors, according to Gladwell, we would never have met the people we consider some of our closest friends, or most enjoyable acquaintances.
Connectors also, in a sense, collect people. Gladwell states that connectors aren't like you and me, with a few friends that they consider close. Instead, connectors are people who make numerous ties with people that aren't that important and they keep up those ties with said people.
Here is a little interesting test that Gladwell conducted himself to test and see if people were connectors. He presented them with a list of sir names and told them to mark off names they recognized - if you know more than one person with that sir name, each one counts.
Anyways, these are the two topics that I found most interesting while I was reading, because the fact of the matter is, that they are true. When I started thinking about my own group of friends, I realized, eventually, they all led to one person I knew who is my connector.
The video loosely shows who would be a connector and who wouldn't be. The nice one with the balloon is more likable and will most likely make more friends than the angry one; plus it's super cute!
I am still impressed with the concepts that Gladwell is presenting are still as fascinating to me now as they were when I first read them, and I cannot wait to see what comes next. I totally recommend this book to all people that like to learn why certain things are the way they are, and like to connect that to their own lives.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell "is a fascinating book that makes you see the world in different ways." (Fortune). Now I have only read about a fourth of this book so far - meaning you can expect me to post more - but I am already fascinated with the points that Gladwell has made two chapters (pages 16-89).
The first point that Gladwell discussed that captured my attention was was the 80/20 principle. "Roughly 80 percent of the work will be done by 20 percent of the participants." (Gladwell, 19). Meaning that in most situations where something because drastically unbalanced, it is most commonly caused by a small population. Now, I don't know about you, but that struck me as interesting.
Personally, I previously believed that situations or fads were caused by larger groups of people. So, to find out that most situations that become unbalanced come from the minority was a shock. Gladwell supports this claim of 80/20 by discussing an epidemic of gonorrhea in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Through an interview with a man named John Potterat, who had conducted an experiment to test this 80/20 principle; Potterat discovered that "about half of all the cases came, essentially, from four neighborhoods representing about six percent of the geographic area of the city. Half of that six percent, in turn, were socializing in the same six bars." (Gladwell, 19).
John Potterat
This means that it was a very small group of people who came from the same social environment that were the key candidates in spreading the disease throughout Colorado Springs. I'm sure you asked yourself, as I did, how could have it spread outside that small social gathering? Well, there could be a number of reasons. But, all of these numerous reasons, whatever they may have been, had to have been something that forced the group to leave their original environment to somewhere else in Colorado. This would have caused them to be in contact with a new group of people who would be subjugated to gonorrhea, and from there the disease would have spread to the new community and so on and so forth.
Now, point that Gladwell brings up is about the bystander problem. This point I found even more compelling then the first. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was the relatability of the topic, or maybe it was the shock of it that came from one of the examples Gladwell used. But, I am getting ahead of myself here so let me back track just a bit.
Gladwell's example is Kitty Genovese, who in 1964 was stabbed to death while thirty-eight bystanders watched from their apartment complexes without even attempting to help or call the poloce. Now you know what I meant by shocking and I can continue forward.
Kitty Genovese
So when I had to re-read the page a few times over because I couldn't believe that thirty-people watched, and not one of them did anything to stop what they were witnessing. To me this was impossible, until two psychologists - Bibb Latane, and John Darley - conducted an experiment to test the bystander problem.
Staging accidents, they would test to see how many people were willing to help versus that percent who did nothing. Now, when the subject thought that they were on their own, 85% of the time they rushed into help. However, when they believed that others were around that number dropped to 31% of the time.
This is because, as individuals we believe it is our responsibility to help someone who we believe direly needs our help. But, as soon as the individual becomes a group, the whole situation and reaction changes. In a group, people either believe that someone else will, or already is doing something to fix the situation; or, because they notice no one else helping, they believe the situation isn't as bad as it appears.
In other words, in a group people think that the responsibilty of the situation automatically falls to someone else. So "the less is not that no one called despite thirty-eight people heard her scream; it's that no one called because thirty-eight people heard her scream." (Gladwell, 28).
I found this fascinating once it had been explained because it got me to thinking, thinking about how I would have reacted in one of the experimental situations. When I started thinking about it, I wouldn't have been apart of that 31% of people that rushed to help. I would have assumed that someone else in the group was more qualified to help then I myself would have been. That's a question that this book makes you ask yourself. Would you be apart of that 31%, or, in all honesty, would you be like me and contribute to the bystander problem.
The Bystander Effect in action...
And these are only two things discussed in the first two chapters, amongst other concepts, principles and issues.
Anyways, as I am sure you can tell, The Tipping Point brings up a ton of subject matter in a new light that, I for one would have never considered or thought of. Gladwell, yet again writes a book with compelling concepts and ideas that will definitely keep you hooked and teach you a thing or two.
I for one can't wait to continue reading and see what else Gladwell will argue or define in a new way. So, if you'll excuse me, I am going to start up on chapter three.
"I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging..." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, Ch. 1
I have read my share of books in the short seventeen years that I have had the good pleasure living. But never in those years have I ever experienced any adventure as enjoyable as when I read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Not only does this book have its own world with its own history, culture, language, and adventure. But, this book also has its own set of unique characters that you would never be able to find anywhere other than in The Hobbit.
However, the distinctive characters of Middle Earth are not the only interesting key to this marvelous novel. No, the most enjoyable piece of this book is the fact that you forget you are reading, and feel as though you are, instead, living the adventure. Tolkien does a spectacular job of drawing his read into the book and immersing them into the story. I felt as though I was actually part of Thorin's company of thirteen. I was jeering to reclaim the Lonely Mountain, that was stolen by the fire breathing dragon, Smaug. I truly believed that I was in peril with the characters, I was convinced that I was in the world of Middle Earth with all its dangers, horrors, and mysteries.
You See...He is quite terrifying and horrid.
You cannot blame me for wanting to help the Dwarf's to reclaim their home.
Also, just as importantly is how Tolkien forces the reader to accept that no one, not even the heroines of The Hobbit, are solely good, or solely evil. Tolkien tries to convey this understanding that all creatures have their faults and shortcomings. Now, I know what you must be thinking. That I am crazy right? Well, let me explain a bit further what I am trying to say. Tolkien wrote the character of Thorin to seem stoic and level headed, however, he is actually quite greedy and unpredictable throughout the entire book. Or Gollum for example, Tolkien does a marvelous job highlighting small things on this character that made me realize that he is one deserving of pity, not hatred or malice. He isn't evil like the movies lead you to believe, but rather lost. Lost in himself, lost in his greed as Thorin is, and lost in the shadows that he has hidden himself in for so long.
What I am trying to say is that Tolkien writes his characters with the traits and shortcomings that you can find in all people. You are forced to accept his characters for who they are; to understand that they are mortal and that they make mistakes, and have their flaws. Now, in all the books that I have read I have never really experienced this in the characters. The personas were either completely good or completely evil, which gives them a sense of unrelate-ability or distance. In other words, I felt as though all of Tolkien's imperfections that he writes into all of his characters makes them feel more real, and more distinct.
I know the question here may be, why is this book so much better than the Lord of The Rings? I have read the entire trilogy of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien as well, and they do not even come close to The Hobbit in enjoyment. I know this, because I had to personally write numerous essays on all the books comparing and contrasting the characters, the environment, and story. Don't misunderstand, The Lord of the Rings is a marvel within itself. But, it doesn't quite match the essence and soul of The Hobbit. It doesn't quite compare to the quality and humor that only Bilbo Baggins has to offer. In other words, The Lord of the Rings is just not as engaging and amusing as The Hobbit. Its darker and more gruesome, while The Hobbit can get a smile out of even the most emotionless of readers.
Take it from me, The Hobbit is an adventure do not want to miss out on; relationships with the characters you will regret not forming. This book is one that will stick with you your entire life and will give you a sense of fulfillment and joy throughout the entire read, and even when it is finished. The Hobbit is a book everyone should experience at least once in their life. Or, if you are like me three times...
