Monday 17 January 2011

Review of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

I've renewed this book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell on a number of occasions from my local library because I never got round to reading it and decided it was time to let it go.

I thought after two months I shouldn't be such a book hogger. I’m currently on the maximum limit of borrowed books which is twenty-five. So I’ve decided not to borrow any more till I’ve read them all. I thought if I blogged about things it might motivate me to read. I''m like a kid in a sweet shop when it comes to books and magazines. I need to get it all.

I found this a difficult read and slightly structured or fixed in a way to bring over Malcolm Gladwell's points. I actually got his Gladwell's Blinking book which I can’t call much of.  However it is the kind of book you’ll get because just one chapter catches your eye and is worth a read saying that several liitle gems in chapters between its covers.

The issue and problem with most of us is that we want to have short cuts to success and therefore spend of what we think is a ‘holy grail’ or path to guaranteed success. Malcom Gladwell even has a review from former president Bill Clinton and Gladwell is a New York times bestselling author.

The first is a huge endorsement and so is the second. However because Mr Clinton found something to say about it doesn’t necessary mean it’s useful for either you or me. Secondly a bestselling book just means a lot of people bought it not that they read it or found it useful. I’ve bought huge tomes of books and never read them.

The good bits.

 Malcolm Gladwell uses case studies to illustrate his points. The has a number of hypothesises or theories such as the stickiness factor – the uses as part of his case studies Sesame Street and Nickelodeon to illustrate. In my opinion there is an excellent chapter on the ‘The power of context’ and ‘Broken Windows’.

The covers innovators; as you know all these sort of books always introduce some type of management role play paradigm so in the same vein  Malcolm Gladwell has ‘Salesman’, ‘Innovators’ and you’ll have to read the book to find out the others. 

As I said there are a few gems and chapters that could be of use. There are excellent theories on suicide in young men in some area of the world and smoking amongst teenagers. Also a good chapter on marketing and finding ways to innovate. If you are good with reading between the lines you'll gleam a lot tips from Gladwell.

It is a popular (as in for the masses and not an academic text) science book and at times you feel Gladwell is just writing because another book because he has to. 

So a mixed review anyway the point was to return it to the library so I only have twenty four more books to read.

You can read more about Malcom Gladwell here. http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html

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