The Tipping Point

Not long after moving here I went on a book buying spree and one of the books I picked up was The Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

The overarching theme is studying trends that grow or fall very quickly rather than gradually. He claims there are three key aspects to an epidemic (includes anything from rise of aids to drop in crime in NYC to certain ad campaigns): the key people in spreading it, how "sticky" it is, and the context. He says the three key groups for spreading epidemics are connectors - people who have a large number of acquaintances they keep in touch with, mavens - people very knowledgeable about a topic who like to share their knowledge to help others, and salesmen - people good at selling an idea (ok that one was kind of obvious). Stickiness is once someone finds out about something will they stick with it - if someone tells you about a good restaurant you'll only keep going back if it is actually good. Context is a bit fuzzy but he makes the case that people's decisions are heavily influenced by their surroundings.

This book had a somewhat similar structure as the world is flat where he takes you through numerous examples (and in what I think is greater than required detail) to build the main idea. Although I think in the world is flat the main theme gets more weight, tipping point borders on being like freakonomics where each individual topic is interesting but there is no underlying thesis. I think the examples make a reasonable case that the three things mentioned help spread epidemics, but I don't think he did anything to prove they are all that is required or to show that there are not other paths to spreading that do not require those three.

For someone in marketing/sales/advertising/pr it is probably interesting (unless it is stuff those people already know). For others I think the examples are kind of interesting but I can't really see using the overall message. Also as someone on amazon pointed out it is a bit odd to write a book that is basically about memes and yet never use the term or point to any of the research on the subject.

One item from the examples that stuck for me is most of the time when someone gets a job from a friend it is actually from an acquaintance, not a close friend.