 2008-09-24 - Having been hugely happy with Blink!
Having been hugely happy with Blink! I went out and purchased The Tipping Point almost right away. It, like most the other books I purchase, sat on a bookcase dedicated solely to books-yet-to-read until a few days ago. And now it shall be moved to its permanant home on a different bookcase. The point of all of this is that The Tipping Point is a well-researched, highly interesting, and unique book. The problem is that it, like Blink!, doesn't stick (see book for details). It's interesting but doesn't have the stickiness of most bestsellers, and is most certainly not something I would have watched the count down date for publishing like I'm doing with a few others. Good, but not great. Interesting, but not facinating. A 4, but not a 5.
 2008-09-16 - Must read book
Macolm Gladwell's approach in this book is that of an observer. His deductions are thoroughly logical and offer a refreshing alternative to traditional thought. This book was a joy to read. I am also half way through his second book entitled Blink. As an author he has explained in both these books what other observers have innately noticed about human behavior and explained these ideas in a simple, natural manner.
 2008-09-16 - THANK YOU AMAZON, and mixed review
I have to compliment Amazon on their awesome feature of look inside the book! I had bought this book about a year ago from [...] and for a few different reasons had not had the chance to read it until a year after i bought it. Well, I got to page 31 of my book and was rudely surprised to see that my book had a page ripped out!!! (who does that?!) Anyways, so thanks to amazon's online feature of look inside the book, I was able to go to the missing page and read the missing text. THANK YOU AMAZON!
As an Advertising and Marketing major, this book did carry some interesting perspectives on social trends and epidemics for brand popularity and other social phenomena. However, I do think that some of the examples, although relevant to certain aspects of society and world culture, were unnecessarily negative. If this theory can be applied universally to many different contexts, then a few more positive and uplifting examples could have been noted. Drugs, Suicide, and shootings should be balanced with a more uplifting tone.
2008-08-21 - Interesting stories, not that useful
With 900 other reviews, I'll keep this one short. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is an enormously interesting read. It tries to answer the question why and how certain ideas 'tip'. How they spread and become popular. Malcolm uses a huge amount of interesting stories from different domains to try to make his points. For me, the collection of stories was probably more interesting than the points he tried to make. The stories were well written.
Related to tipping, he argues that there are three rules related to an social epidemic. The law of the few (a few people can have a huge impact), the stickiness factor (a message can be constructed to be more sticky) and the power of context (the context can influence the message which is being spread enormously). The rest of the book contains chapters related to each of these rules. Every chapter summarizes the rules and tells stories of where the rule applied.
Tipping Point is extremely well written and easy to read. The bunch of amazing stories make it fun and it's no wonder that it's one a major best sellers in the world. I found the message the author tries to communicate less interesting, though. Never the less, I'd recommend the book to everyone for the sake of the stories and the learning that can be taken out of every individual story.
2008-08-20 - A year later and I'm still marveling over this book!
I've heard Malcolm Gladwell speak, and he's superb! In this innovative book, whether he's referring to the Maven, or the Connector, it's relatable to all individuals. If you're looking for a light leadership book that brings up very INNOVATIVE topics, this is it! For additional tips on leadership, I'd also recommend taking a course at www.corporatetrendsetters.com.
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