Gladwell's Got a Point

Malcolm Gladwell

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.

Try it if you like:

Algazi, Alvarez, Alpern, Ametrano, Andrews, Aran, Arnstein, Ashford, Bailey Ballout, Bamberger, Baptista, Barr, Barrows, Baskerville, Bassiri, Bell, Bokgese, Brandao, Bravo, Brooke, Brightman, Billy, Blau, Bohen, Bohn, Borsuk, Brendle, Butler, Calle, Cantwell, Carrell, Chinlund, Cirker, Cohen, Collas, Couch, Callegher, Calcaterra, Cook, Carey, Cassell, Chen, Chung, Clarke, Cohn, Carton, Crowley, Curbelo, Dellamanna, Diaz, Dirar, Duncan, Dagostino, Delakas, Dillon, Donaghey, Daly, Dawson, Edery, Ellis, Elliott, Eastman, Easton, Famous, Fermin, Fialco, Finklestein, Farber, Falkin, Feinman, Friedman, Gardner, Gelpi, Glascock, Grandfield, Greenbaum Greenwood, Gruber, Garil, Goff, Gladwell, Greenup, Gannon, Ganshaw, Garcia, Gennis, Gerard, Gericke, Gilbert, Glassman, Glazer, Gomendio, Gonzalez, Greenstein, Guglielmo, Gurman, Haberkorn, Hoskins, Hussein, Hamm, Hardwick, Harrell, Hauptman, Hawkins, Henderson, Hayman, Hibara, Hehmann, Herbst, Hedges, Hogan, Hoffman, Horowitz, Hsu, Huber, Ikiz, Jaroschy, Johann, Jacobs, Jara, Johnson, Kassel, Keegan, Kuroda, Kavanau, Keller, Kevill, Kiew, Kimbrough, Kline, Kossoff, Kotzitzky, Kahn, Kiesler, Kosser, Korte, Leibowitz, Lin, Liu, Lowrance, Lundh, Laux, Leifer, Leung, Levine, Leiw, Lockwood, Logrono, Lohnes, Lowet, Laber, Leonardi, Marten, McLean, Michaels, Miranda, Moy, Marin, Muir, Murphy, Marodon, Matos, Mendoza, Muraki, Neck, Needham, Noboa, Null, O’Flynn, O’Neill, Orlowski, Perkins, Pieper, Pierre, Pons, Pruska, Paulino, Popper, Potter, Purpura, Palma, Perez, Portocarrero, Punwasi, Rader, Rankin, Ray, Reyes, Richardson, Ritter, Roos, Rose, Rosenfeld, Roth, Rutherford, Rustin, Ramos, Regan, Reisman, Renkert, Roberts, Rowan, Rene, Rosario, Rothbart, Saperstein, Schoenbrod, Schwed, Sears, Statosky, Sutphen, Sheehy, Silverton, Silverman, Silverstein, Sklar, Slotkin, Speros, Stollman, Sadowski, Schles, Shapiro, Sigdel, Snow, Spencer, Steinkol, Stewart, Stires, Stopnik, Stonehill, Tayss, Tilney, Temple, Torfield, Townsend, Trimpin, Turchin, Villa, Vasillov, Voda, Waring, Weber, Weinstein, Wang, Wegimont, Weed, Weishaus.

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.