Weekend Reading: The Tipping Point
Just picked up the lunch special at Mee Noodle on 1st avenue and 13th--great stuff for 5 bucks and highly recommended. Afterwards, headed over to Strand Books to pick up Malcolm Gladwell's first book--The Tipping Point.We did a story a month ago on Blink-- his second and equally rewarding book. Blink talked about how disturbingly accurately first impressions can be -- you recall we mentioned how over in Europe, a group of psychologists were able to determine whether or not a marriage would last after hearing them conversate for only three minutes tops. This phenomenon Gladwell called thin-slicing. It is when you make an intuition in 3 seconds and later discover your gut instinct was right.
The Tipping Point -- while I just started it-- is great. Really great. Let's put it this way -- I missed my subway stop because I was so engrossed. It reads like a brilliant sociological journal article --but faster. So far, the overarching concern of the book is how trends begin. Gladwell examines the elements of sociocultural change that get overlooked -- like Connectors. Connectors are individuals who can really tip something like a Hush Puppie into a worldwide fashion obsession. They're a necessary element of all trend explosions. Currently, I'm reading the chapter on viruses --Gladwell uses the Paul Revere myth to exemplify how contagiously news can spread. We'll have a more thorough review in a week, of course.
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