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This celebrated New York Times bestseller now poised to reach an even wider audience in paperback is a book that is changing the way North Americans think about selling products and disseminating ideas. Gladwell's new afterword to this edition describes how readers can constructively apply the... read more

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The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. The widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

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  • “Six degrees of separation doesn't simply mean that everyone is linked to everyone else in just six steps. It means that a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, and the rest of us are linked to the world through those few.”
    Malcolm Gladwell
  • “The Stickiness Factor says that there are specific ways of making a contagious message memorable; there are relatively simple changes in the presentation and structuring of information that can make a big difference in how much of an impact it makes.”
  • “In a social epidemic, Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it. But there is also a select group of people—Salesmen—with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing, and they are as critical to the tipping of word of mouth epidemics as the other two groups.”
  • “The Law of the Few says that there are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them. The lesson of stickiness is the same. There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.”

Organizations edit see section history

  • CDC: Centers for Disease Control

First Sentence edit see section history

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

Table of Contents edit see section history

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Three Rules of Epidemics
Chapter 2: The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen
Chapter 3: The Stickiness Factor: Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, the Educational Virus
Chapter 4: The Power of Context (Part One): Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime
Chapter 5: The Power of Context (Part Two): The Magic Number One Hundred and Fifty
Chapter 6: Case Study: Suicide, Smoking, and the Search for the Unsticky Cigarette
Chapter 8: Conclusion: Focus, Test, and Believe

Afterword: Tipping Point Lessons from the Real World
Endnotes
Acknowledgements
Index

Glossary edit see section history

  • tipping point: the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.
  • connectors: the people who "link us up with the world ... people with a special gift for bringing the world together."
  • mavens: "information specialists", or "people we rely upon to connect us with new information."
  • stickiness factor: the specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Social Psychology: Takes a look at the effects of early adopters and "connectors" and how a product/service goes from narrow adoption to wide adoption.
  • Epidemiology: Galdwell describes the three factors of an epidemic: The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context.
  • Success: Describe this theme.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 125 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 108 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 118 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 125 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 11 of 100 in Top 100 Books That Defined The Noughties (Telegraph). (authoritative list)
This is book 20 of 20 in New York Times Bestsellers - Paperback Nonfiction (Current). (authoritative list)
This book is in Joel On Software Reading List. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Malcolm Gladwell (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Little Brown (Publisher)
  2. Sabina Dorneanu (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Little Brown & Co
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: 0316316962
Page Count: 288

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: HM1033 .G53 2002
  • Dewey: 302

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Topics of interest to adults.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Blink
  • What the Dog Saw
  • Outliers
  • Freakonomics

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

   
  • Sustainability by Design
  • Too Big to Know

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