The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point is a book about that special "moment" when a trend becomes a full-blown epidemic. Malcolm Gladwell attempts to explain the social science behind that phenomenon. You've seen it before. A few people in a select group begin to wear something, for example, such as Ugg boots. Soon the trend is noticed and copied, but only by a few people, and maybe only in a specific place. For years the number of Ugg-wearers continues to increase but still remains very small compared to the number of shoe-wearers in general. And then all of a sudden, Ugg boots hit the "tipping point" and within months you begin to see people everywhere sporting the trend. It's not just exponential growth. It's a sudden explosion in popularity. The concept is one we're all familiar with, I'm sure, but I was excited to read a book about it and see some histories and explanations at work. I did learn a number of interesting things, and the book was interesting (or at least not boring) from beginning to end, but I was ultimately disappointed in this read, largely for two reasons. The first wasn't Gladwell's fault at all; it was the publication date. The Tipping Point first came out a full decade ago in the year 2000. And that means it was probably being written between 1997 and 1999. And for a book based on social trends, that was a bit of an issue. Due to the time period, Gladwell doesn't use Ugg boots or Crocs as anecdotes for the tipping point. Instead, he looks at Hush Puppies and Airwalk sneakers. Wow! I'm sure I'd have cared more ten years ago, but those are two horribly dated footwear items. And back then, the information revolution really had yet to begin. Yeah, we had email and cell phones, but only barely. And we didn't have Facebook or YouTube or any form of viral marketing in general. "User-created content" has become so crucial to social interaction and trend-setting these days, and reading Clinton years Gladwell talk about the power of "word of mouth" without ever referencing the Internet at all felt as quaint as a 2000 movie review that praises The Phantom Menace for having great CGI effects. Any decade-old book will feel dated in its discussion of topical trends, but to "miss" the 2000-2010 decade is to miss a game-changing shift in the very way we communicate. And that was very unfortunate. The other snafu that I do pin on Gladwell is an inability to stay on one real track. Although every chapter was interesting, the writing really jumped all over the place, from "Sesame Street was a successful show because it defied conventions" to "crime in New York City dropped dramatically in the early '90s because of the 'broken window' effect" to "Gore-Tex is a successful company because it limits each plant to 150 workers or fewer" to "Paul Revere was able to spread his warning message so effectively because he was a very charismatic man." Again, all interesting stuff, but what does any of it have to do with that "tipping point" that this book is ostensibly about? Nothing. It'd be one thing if each of these points came back to reinforce a central point that the author was building and reiterating throughout the book. (This is part of why I think Freakonomics and its sequel were so effective.) Instead, all of the ramblings never really found each other and remained episodic and isolated. There just seemed to be a real lack of focus. In the end I didn't hate this book, but I can't give it a strong recommendation due to the aforementioned issues. I've got one more Gladwell book on my backlog, but if it wasn't already on my bookshelf I wouldn't have gone out of my way to read any of his other works.