Wednesday, April 06, 2005

The Tipping Point, by Malcom Gladwell

The Tipping Point, by Malcom Gladwell

While the rest of the country is reading Blink, I’m just getting around to Gladwell’s first best seller. After all the positive buzz, I was surprised this seemed so light in actual conclusions. The basic idea is that when a phenomenon reaches a certain critical mass (the “tipping point” of the title), it will grow exponentially. While an interesting thought, it isn’t supported by anything but a collection of anecdotes. I enjoyed reading it, but it took a long time to get through it because there wasn’t much substance.

First Sentence:
In the mid-1990s, the city of Baltimore was attacked by an epidemic of syphilis.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may want to check out Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. It has more depth on similar subjects.

Klobetime said...

Thanks - I'll add it to my wish list.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to hear a contrarian view on this book.

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