"The tipping point...the name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once." In this book, Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Blink, examines epidemics in a search to understand why some ideas or behaviours or products start epidemics while others do not. He is also interested in discovering if we can deliberately start and control epidemics that are positive and beneficial to mankind. If we indeed can control them, then educators, parents, marketers, business people and policymakers could make a big impact on the world at large. Sounds a little scary to me because we all know that a little power in the wrong hands could also have the opposite effect.
Gladwell outlines three principles in his study of epidemics - little changes have big effects, behaviour can be contagious and change happens dramatically not gradually. Numerous examples from the business, retail and health worlds are given to demonstrate the concept. The story of Hushpuppies and how they came back into style, the story of Baltimore's syphilis epidemic, the rise of AIDS and many other examples illustrate the three principles perfectly.
Furthermore, Gladwell uncovers three rules in achieving the tipping point - the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. These can all be applied to situations to better understand the process of reaching the tipping point and to make sense of epidemics. I am interested to read more about these factors and how we can use them to understand and achieve positive "Tipping Points" in our own lives.
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