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

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference | Malcolm Gladwell | simple grace

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The Tipping Point:...

	The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Malcolm Gladwell Back Bay Books, 2002 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 922 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The "Bottom-Up" Rules of the Systemic Effects of small Catastrophes

Through the (non-mathematical) backdoor, Malcolm Gladwell has "intuited" several "bottom-up" rules and a layman's route to complex non-linear systemic processes and their effects. And has used them effectively to pen this gem. Those of us who deal with computer simulations -- where taking complex non-linear mathematical processes directly into effect is the rule rather than the exception (rather than taking them indirectly into effect as Gladwell has done here), see nothing unusual about the phenomena the author has "coined" as "tipping points" - except that they are now being applied with some skill and a great deal of success perhaps for the first time to social phenomena.

Multivariate and multidimensional Calculus has long been the province of studying such phenomena. The Calculus has been used to find and keep track of the maxima and minima of physical phenomenon such as "a ball rolling along the edges or towards the center of a curved surface." The "rolling ball" on a three-dimensional surface is the perfect mathematical analogue to the evolving processes studied in this volume. Typically, the point at which these surfaces experience a sharp drop-off (or discontinuity) is the mathematical equivalent of Gladwell's "tipping points."

Said more simply, what lies beneath such processes has been explained clearly and sufficiently by multivariate calculus of curved surfaces, and in particular by the branch developed by the French Mathematician Rene Thom who has used the calculus of "Catastrophe theory" to explore how surface discontinuities may be used to represent various social phenomena. Although Thom's mathematical machinery has (rather surprisingly) had only limited success, it too was aimed at analyzing the same kinds of social phenomena as that described in this book.

Also, it is noteworthy to mention that the late, Barry Richmond, the founder of a company developed out of Dartmouth University, called High Performance Systems, has developed a novel and easy to use simulation shell called iThink, in which the same kind of non-linear processes that Gladwell has brought down to earth in this book, are used as very effective tools for simulating similar social processes. The metaphor of "a bathtub being filled and drained" serves as the analog to the complex math that takes place in the background of the iThink program.

A fascinating exercise would be to see how many of Gladwell's processes such as his "Connectors," "Mavens," and "Salesmen" could be reproduced as variables in a simulation tool such as iThink. What a wonderful way to try to generalize them to other social processes. [In my own work, I used an iThink model to "brief" Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, on the inner city teen pregnancy problem. Although she was impressed with the model, I never heard from her again, as shortly afterwards she was summarily dismissed from her post.]

What Gladwell's keen talent for careful observation of social phenomena and his compilation of many examples in this book demonstrates, is that the need for the systems analysis of social processes has arrived, and that social processes have been severely understudied; and analysis of them severely underdeveloped. Perhaps the delay has been due to the fact that the mathematics of non-linear systems is so complicated, and also because heretofore, social phenomena have been seen as much too unruly to be tamed entirely with scientific tools. But now that the cat is out of the bag, the analytical fun can begin in earnest.

What "The Tipping Point" proves is that there is more than one way to skin a cat analytically: When the most sensitive variables of social processes are carefully observed and properly tweaked, no matter how impressionistic they are represented analytically, nor how crude may be the tools of analysis, the results can be (and usually are) rather spectacular (and correct!).

I certainly hope that this book and a companion one, "Critical Mass," heralds a new era in which policymakers may begin to see that social processes can be tamed analytically - especially when they are observed carefully and the proper tools are brought to bear. I am optimistic that some enterprising young social scientists will use this book as a clue to develop a company that addresses the social analysis of complex social phenomena, and thus will lead us out of the Analytic cul de sac of embarrassingly inept and incompetent social analysis and social policies that we have witnessed over the last generation.

Five Stars.

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BRILLIANCE

The Tipping Point is an invaluable resource for almost all aspects of life, but particularly for marketing. I originally read the print version, much of which is so "sticky" I still remember it and quote from it years later despite only reading it once. I have now purchased the CD's so that I can continue to delve into the intricasies of Gladwell's brilliant work while driving in my car.

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Understanding in a new way

Gladwell's book is refreshing because he encourages the reader to look at change in a new way. The Tipping Point is never quite what we think it is, in his analysis of various seemingly unchangeable situations that did, indeed, change. His analyses stretch across all possible situations - shoes, the clean-up of the New York City subway system, crime, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and in each case they show us that situations do not always change the way we rationally think they ought to.

By writing in this way Gladwell shows us that we all tend to bring our own quite logical, but ultimately damaging, prejudices to situations - and as a result we misunderstand what's actually going on. Of course, there are no 'answers' that can allow us to define where a tipping point will occur and how we can engineer it, and this may disappoint some readers who want easy answers. Yet that is exactly what Gladwell intends. He wants us to observe and think, not apply some abstract theory in a one-size-fits-all mind set.

It's a provocative and engaging read, and I recommend it to anyone.

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Enlightening and Entertaining

I'd heard of this book a while ago and was always intrigued by the concept. Finally got a copy and I couldn't put it down. This type of subject matter (social economics and theory) really interests me. It was a quick read and opened the door to a lot of theories I hadn't considered. Put a couple of days into this book and you won't regret it.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

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