The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Think about a match. Tiny. Simple. Seemingly innocuous. These are the things that may come to mind. Not at first do you think of forest fires and utter destruction. You probably didn't think about it causing people to flee from their homes or tattered belongings strewn across lawns. This is what The Tipping Point delves into--how the little things in life can actually make a big difference whether it be the reemergence of Hush Puppies, the success of Paul Revere, the effectiveness of the knowledge that Blues' Clues imparts to the young or any epidemic for that matter.

Malcolm Gladwell classifies his book as an "intellectual adventure story" and rightfully so. It's definitely an adventure as the book pulls you from the world of business, education, fashion and media drawing psychological conclusions from then all. Different than a novel in that it doesn't have a plot, it's just as entertaining for those of you who don't like to read non-fiction. Full of funny stories, interesting facts and great tips to succeed in life, The Tipping Point has it all. An example of Gladwell's entertaining and interesting writing starts in one of the first pages:

Yawning is incredibly contagious. I made some of you reading this yawn simply by writing the word "yawn". The people who yawned when they saw you yawn, meanwhile, were infected by the sight of you yawning--which is a second kind of contagion. They might even have yawned if they only heard you yawn, because yawning is also aurally contagious: if you play an audio-tape of a yawn to blind people, they'll yawn too. And finally, if you yawned as you read this, did the thought cross your mind--however unconsciously and fleetingly--that you might be tired? I suspect that for some of you it did, which means that yawns can also be emotionally contagious. Simply by writing the word, I can plant a feeling in your mind. Can the flu virus do that? Contagiousness, in other words, is an unexpected property of all kinds of things, and we have to remember that if we are to recognize and diagnose epidemic change.

Change and the path of epidemics were relatively untouched subjects until The Tipping Point. After it, a plethora of subject-related material emerged. Gladwell attributes the success of epidemics, trends and phenomena to three rules of epidemics: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context (all of which have a dedicated chapter).

Book Overview
The Three Rules of Epidemics:
1. The Law of the Few
- Connectors: have ties to connect people
- Mavens: want to help others make informed decisions
- Salemen: people with charisma who persuade people to make certain buying decisions
2. The Stickiness Factor
- the ability of a phenomena to retain its popularity by "sticking" in the minds of the people rather than turning into a fad
3. The Power of Context
- environment and timing is important for a trend to tip
- certain groups and certain types of groups must embrace it