The Tipping PoinT..

Tipping points are "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable".Gladwell defines a tipping point as a sociological term: "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point."The book seeks to explain and describe the "mysterious" sociological changes that mark everyday life. As Gladwell states, "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do(epidemics)."The examples of such changes in his book include the rise in popularity and sales of Hush Puppies shoes in the mid-1990s and the precipitous drop in the New York City crime rate after 1990.

Gladwell uses all of these to illustrate what he defines as the three principles of social epidemics: the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context.

The Law of Few
The law of the few is roughly comparable to the 80/20 rule, that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Gladwell attributes the success of social epidemics to the efforts of three types of individuals: connectors, mavens, and salesmen.

Connectors are people who because of their personalities and their ability to exist in numerous worlds and cultivate weak-ties with a variety of individuals, make the world a smaller place by bringing people together. They are the ones responsible for the six degrees of separation theory.

Mavens are shoppers. It doesn't matter what the market is - cars, computers, clothes - the maven is the person with her finger on the pulse of the industry, the early adopter. Mavens accumulate knowledge about the industry; the maven is the guy in the cubicle next to yours who knows exactly what the next version of the iPod is going to look like and do. He's also the guy who has one first.

Salesmen are people who through the shear persuasiveness of their personalities are able to sell ideas, products, practices without even trying. We buy what they buy and do what they do because they make it seem so appealing, and we just want to be more like them.

The Stickiness Factor
the specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable. Popular children's television programs such as Sesame Street and Blue's Clues pioneered the properties of the stickiness factor, thus enhancing the effective retention of the educational content in tandem with its entertainment value.

The Power of Context
Gladwell's third principal is the power of context, the notion that epidemics are sensitive to the context, or the time and place, in which they occur. In a compelling example of how during the 1990's the crime rate in New York City dropped precipitously and without explanation, Gladwell points to something called the Broken Windows theory, theory of two criminologists based upon the notion that, "if a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will bee broke, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a a signal that anything goes."

The Tipping Point is a powerful and fascinating book that cuts across a variety of fields of interest. Within, Gladwell constructs and details ideas that change the way we perceive social trends we might not otherwise think to question.

**nota kaki berbulu**i'm interested that people are divided into three categories. The connectors , The mavens and The salesman. What do you think about it? which group you into?
we know our personality better than others but sometimes we unconscious on what we are?
am i right?...