Monday, June 25, 2007

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780316346627-0 - Similar to Freakonomics, The Tipping Point examines cultural phenomenons and epidemics and gets to the heart of what causes some ideas/illnesses/products to take off and others to just die away. He explores the importance of word of mouth - and the nature of the people spreading the word and what causes us to make certain decisions. He looks at one of the exact same questions as Freakonomics - what caused the sudden decline in crime in the 1990s, and answers it in a very different way. I particularly liked the chapter on what makes Sesame Street and Blue's Clues so popular with young children. Gladwell's observances about different types of people and how the way people behave changes depending on circumstance were very interesting to me. This was definitely a fun book and I'm waiting to borrow his more recent book, Blink from the library soon.

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