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Looking forward to discussing Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point.

-We’ve read a few books by Gladwell in our in-person book group. They’re all fun pop sociology books with lots of clever examples. Have you read any others by him?


-He originally wrote The Tipping Point as an article for the New Yorker and he expanded on the concept for his first book release. It was an immediate success


-The first thing I thought about when I was reading this was the book Freakonomics. Has anyone read that one?


-I was trying to boil down what really makes all of his books similarly interesting and fun to read and I think I’ve settled on an answer. They all take examples that are either well-known and interpret them in ways you wouldn’t initially consider. Then he tells a story to illustrate his theory in a way that’s novel and fun. Like in one of his other books he talks about why we went from having only two or three options for different types of pasta sauce and years later we’re inundated with what seems like 15 different varieties and he somehow spins this into and brilliant and entertaining discussion about meeting needs we never even knew we had
There’s a TED Talk he did on this subject if anyone is interested


-You can see this idea in The Tipping Point with his discussion of the stickiness factor and how it relates to childrens programming. You have the example of Sesame Street, which is something we’re all familiar with, but he interprets the show’s importance in such a fresh new way.
It really does go against the common understanding of kids having low attention spans and how they need flashy colors and a fast-paced programming to keep them interested. And by doing so it helped millions of kids learn more effectively. (Mr Rogers Neighborhood did the same too)
-they really had to overturn a lot of conventional wisdom and over a long period of time to gain traction and prove the effectiveness of this kind of programming


-I enjoyed his concept about how 20% of people do 80% of the work. My first thought was back to group projects in school and how there always seemed to be one person willing to take charge.
He led this idea into talking about Connectors who were people who have made significant relationships with lots of different types of people. Again something that came right to mind was the show Pawn Stars. They always seem to know a specialist in some specific area of expertise, which I’m sure helps keep business profitable.
Do you agree with him that some people are just naturally connectors, and are therefore more likely to develop these types of different relationships?

-I agreed with some of his points in the chapter about New York City and how a few small changes can have a larger impact on on a community. I liked how it comes down to small improvements to beautify the city and cut down on petty crime and the ripple effects this could have.
But at the same time I think there was a lot of overreaching with how New York implemented this policy and how it encouraged stop-and-frisk policing and other racist practices


I liked the story of the novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and how it started with a very small, passionate audience and grew from there to mainstream success. It’s interesting to see how a group of 150 people can influence people on such a grand scale just by being so excited about the book. What strikes me about this concept is how it happens without media influence or a lot of advertising or anything like that
-50 Shades of Grey was just a series of posts on the internet from an unknown author before becoming a regular on the NY Times Bestsellers list