Skip to content

Making Strange

  • Home
  • Biography
  • What is Policy Translation?
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • People
  • Publications
April 10, 2022 / Book review

Weekend Reading: “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”

 

The travel of ideas

This week’s weekend reading is the international bestseller from Malcolm Gladwell “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”. In this book released in 2000, the New York Times columnist and a writer Malcolm Gladwell describes the turning point when a trend starts to catch fire, becomes important, takes prevalence and spreads as an epidemic.In his post-factum analysis of what makes ideas spread, he focuses on actors and agents of this process, and comes to the conclusion that it is the three type of people that need to come together to make ideas fly: Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors know a lot of people and are necessary to spread the ideas to get the critical mass of followers and propagators; Mavens are those who generate ideas and put them up for sharing, very often with little personal gain in mind, and Salesmen are those who present ideas creatively and persuasively, with much personal charisma and effect on followers.

Where the Books Tricks You

I study the travel of ideas already for about 10 years and have read a great deal of scientific and popular literature on the subject. And I can see why Gladwell’s book is so popular. Not only does he present it as a solved formula for popularity of trends, he implicitly creates expectations that such trends can be created, managed and manipulated. This is what the science of ‘travel of ideas’ denies.

Basically, the complexity and the chaos of reality is so great that no formula can be followed with this, although patterns exist.

Predictability of trends to spread, albeit highly searched after and desirable, is low, the tipping points are hard to foresee and much depends on convergence of right circumstances. Yet, Gladwell’s analysis is helpful for those who seek to introduce new ideas/market goods and those who want to understand this process. It is the deceptiveness of the assumption that you can have a ‘take home message’ from that book is what I find problematic.

It is not long, a few hundred soft cover pages, so you should be able to finish it in 2 days. Enjoy!

Post navigation

Previous Post:

New Book!!! “River Basin Management in the Twenty-first Century: Understanding People and Place”

Next Post:

An Ode to Writing: Writing as a Practice of Freedom

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Archives

  • December 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • September 2020 (2)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • June 2017 (1)
  • April 2017 (1)
  • November 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (3)
  • December 2015 (1)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • September 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (1)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (1)
  • October 2014 (1)
  • August 2014 (2)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • May 2014 (1)
  • January 2014 (1)
  • December 2013 (2)
  • September 2013 (1)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (3)
  • June 2013 (1)
  • May 2013 (3)
  • March 2013 (4)
  • February 2013 (1)
  • October 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (1)

Categories

Book an appointment with me

Archives

  • December 2022
  • September 2022
  • January 2022
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • January 2021
  • September 2020
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • November 2016
  • August 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • October 2012
  • August 2012
©2023 Making Strange - Powered by Simpleasy