The Tipping Point
BY: Malcom Gladwell
Introduction
the tipping point is the biography of an idea — think of them as epidemics — contiguous behaviour (7)
1. contagiousness, 2. the fact that little causes can have big effects and 3. that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment — the 3rd trait is most important because it is the principle that makes sense if the first two and that permits the greatest insight into why modern change happens the way it does = tipping point (9)
ex. Yawning is incredibly contagious — as you read, hear or see someone yawn you’ll most likely do the same, it’s emotionally too — contagiousness is an unexpected property of all kinds of things (10)
as humans we have a hard time with geometric progression (keeps doubling) because the end result (the effect) seems far out of proportion to the cause — need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that sometimes bug changes follow from small events and sometimes these changes can happen very quickly (11)
we are all, at heart, gradualist, our expectations set by the steady passage of time (13)
the world of the tipping point is a place where the unexpected becomes the expected, where radical change is more than possibility — it is contrary to all our expectations — a certainty (14)
why is it that some ideas or behaviours or products start epidemics and others don’t? What can we do to deliberately start and control positive epidemics of our own? (14)
Chapter 1: The Three Rules of Epidemics
Baltimore was attacked by an epidemic of syphilis — the problem that made it tip was crack as drug led to risky sexual behaviours (15)
another theory was the medical services as during that time the city cut back (16)
the last theory is that the housing situation changed during the time where buildings were demoed and now others are more spread out causing the spread of syphilis (17)
all these are not very dramatic — more than one way to tip an epidemic, epidemics are a function of the people who transmit infectious agents, the infectious agent itself, and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating — so when change occurs in those areas that’s the tipping point (18)
the 80/20 principle — where the idea that in any situation roughly 80% of the work will be done by 20% of the participants — when it comes to epidemics it becomes even more extremely (19)
the law of few — a few exceptional people found to be the ones to create the tipping point (22)
stickiness means that a message makes an impact (25)
the stickiness factor says that there are specific ways of making a contagious message memorable (25)
the power of context — “bystander problem” where the more bystanders or group people feel the responsibility is dispersed (28)
the 3 rules of the tipping point = the law if the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context (29)
Chapter 2: The Law of the Few
word of mouth recommendations are so strong but it’s only sometimes that makes it an epidemic (32)
the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts — this is the law of the few (33)
people chose friends of similar age and race — but proximity mattered more to people, proximity overpowered similarity (35)
it means that a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, and the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few (37)
for example if you thought of 49 of your close friends and went back and thought how you met each one of them there will be a link where a person will keep coming up — these people are connectors, people with a special gift for bringing the world together (38)
he didn’t think of his people collection as a business strategy — just thought of it as something he did, it was who he was, an instinctive and natural gift for making social connections (43)
most of us shy away from cultivating acquaintances as we have our circle of friends to whom we devote to — acquaintances we don’t really want to feel obliged to have dinner with or be close friends with (45)
weak tie — is a friendly yet casual connection (46)
connectors mange to occupy many different worlds and subcultures and niches (48)
their ability to to span many different worlds is a function of something intrinsic to their personality — some combination of curiosity, self confidence, social ability, abs energy (49)
connectors have many foot in so many worlds, they have the effect of bringing them together (51)
connectors sees possibilities — sees the world a little differently (53)
the strength of weak ties; acquaintances represent a source of social power — acquaintances live a different world than you and your close friends do (54)
word of mouth chain begins when somewhere along the line, someone tells a connector (56)
just as they are people we rely upon to connect us to other people, there are also people we rely upon to connect us with new information (59)
Maven; one who accumulates knowledge (60)
they obsessed with collecting information then sharing that (62)
mavens are the kinds of people who are avid readers of the consumers report (65)
they have the knowledge and the social skills to start word of mouth epidemics — it’s how they pass it along; they want to help for no other reason than because they like to help (67)
a connector might know more people but a mavens word might be stronger than a connector (69)
a maven is not a persuader — their motivation is to educate and to help, to be a teacher (69)
mavens are data banks, they provide the message; connectors are social glue; they spread it (70)
persuasive people are energetic, enthusiastic, charming, likeable, it’s not really what exactly the words they say (73)
it’s the positive mindset and energy — if someone says you can’t do that, try and see; if you don’t try, you’ll never succeed (74)
little things can make a difference when being persuasive such as non verbal cues (78)
to have a powerful or persuasive personality is that you can draw others into your own rhythms age dictate the terms of the interaction (83)
motor mimicry — if you show pictures of people smiling or a frown they will mimic that expression — if you get shown a video of a person thumb getting hit by a hammer, most people will grimace; mimic the emotional state = empathy; we express support and care and how we communicate with each other (84)
emotion is contagious (84)
we normally think of our expressions on our face as a reflection of an inner state (I feel happy so I smile, I feel sad so I frown) inside-out (85)
emotional contagion is the opposite where it’s outside-in (if I can make you smile, I can make you happy; if I can make you frown I can make you sad) (85)
that’s how people can have a major influence over others (85)
senders; are people that are very good at expressing their feelings and emotions (85)
Chapter 3: The Stickiness Factor
by making small but critical adjustments in how they presented ideas to preschoolers, they could overcome television’s weakness as a teaching tool — Sesame Street (91)
law if the few; the nature of the messenger (91)
messengers are what make something spread — but the content of the message matters too and the quality of that message (92)
sometimes a mere change in presentation can shift and tip — make it become practical and personal (98)
kids don’t watch when they are stimulated and look away when they are bored — they watch when they understand and look away when they are confused (102)
a study at Harvard took preschoolers to view two segments of Sesame Street where one had the words in the middle of the screen and the other had it at the bottom with
Oscar being the centre — eye tracking showed kids were viewing Oscar and not the words vs the other segment kids were looking at the words — Oscar was the stickiness factor not the words (109)
if you paid careful attention to the structure and format of your material, you could dramatically enhance stickiness (110)
blue clues was another show that did really well because it targeted only preschoolers and did not have any intentions for adults (113)
preschoolers learn through mutual exclusivity where they only associate one with one and Sesame Street had jokes referring to more than one meaningful that led to a downfall and misunderstanding (115)
preschoolers enjoyed the repetition of blue clues as the aired it 5 days in a row the same one — it’s a search for understanding and predictability (126)
blues clues did a great job of ordering their clues as the first one didn’t give the answer away and gave preschoolers a wild imagination then as the clues went on it narrowed it down (130)
lesson of stickiness is the same — simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible, all you have to do is find it (132)
Chapter 4: The Power of Context (Part One)
broken windows theory; is when people see broken windows it’s a context or sign that people don’t care to fix it leading to other crimes (141)
crimes are contagious and can start with just a little thing such as graffiti, public disorder or panhandling (141)
epidemics can be reversed by tinkering with the smallest of details of the immediate environment (146)
the power of context is an environmental argument — behaviour or a function of social context (150)
the power of context says that you don’t have to solve the big problems to solve crime — they have topping so address the small ones (151)
our inner states are the result of our outer circumstances (152)
there are specifics situations so powerful that they can overwhelm our inherent predispositions (154)
another study showed that honesty isn’t a fundamental trait, or what they called a unified trait; a trait like honesty, they concluded, is considerably influenced by the situation (158)
we think personality in absolutes not really situational — this may be a mistake as it’s deceiving ourselves about the two causes of human behaviour (158)
fundamental attribution error (FAE): when it comes to interpreting other people’s behaviour, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of the situation abs context (160)
we are a lot more attuned to personal cues than contextual cues — FAE makes the world a much simpler and more understandable place (161)
character isn’t what we think it is or, rather, what we want it to be. It isn’t a stable, easily identifiable set it closely related traits — character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstances and context (163)
environmental tipping points are things that we can change — peer influence and community influence are kore important than family influence in determining how children turn out (167)
children are so powerfully shaped by their external environment, that the features of our immediate social and physical world — the streets we walk on, the people we encounter play a huge role in shaping who we are and how we act (168)
Chapter 5: The Power of Context (Part Two)
when people are asked to consider evidence or make decisions in a group, they come to very different conclusions than when they are asked the same questions by themselves — susceptible to peer pressure and social norms (171)
if you want change in peoples belief and behaviour — a change that would persist and serve as an example to others, you need to create a community around them (173)
channel capacity: amount of space in our brain for certain kinds of information — humans usually only have the capacity of certain things and the magic number is 7, example why phone numbers are 7 digits as it’s within our capacity to remember but large enough of variety (176)
humans are the only animals brain large enough to handle social complexities (179)
if your community gets over 150 that may be too large and become strangers (181)
gore company doesn’t need formal management structures — the groups of 150 or less is informal personal relationships that are more effective (186)
peer pressure is more effective than having a boss (186)
benefit of unity — having everyone in a complex enterprise share a common relationship (187)
transactive memory — joint memory with others (189)
it’s knowing someone well enough to know what they know, and knowing them well enough so that you can trust them to know things in their speciality (190)
that’s the paradox of the epidemic — in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first (192)
Chapter 6: Case Study — Rumors, Sneakers, and The Poser of Translation
the innovators and early adopters are visionaries — they want revolutionary change (198)
early majority are the big companies — they want to know each percentage increase and improvement (198)
spread of rumours — distortion and only has what stands out to people (202)
it’s about translation to what people want to hear and understand — find some one or some means to translate the message of the innovators into something the rest of us can understand (203)
relentless curiosity about the world (208)
Chapter 7: Case Study; Suicide, Smoking, and the Search For The Unsticky Cigarette
some places age under some circumstances, the act of one person taking his or her own life can be contagious (222)
smoking was never cool, smokers are cool — a small group drives the epidemic (233)
the experience of smoking is so memorable and powerful for some people that they cannot stop — habit sticks (233)
contagiousness is in larger part of a function of the messenger— sickness is primary a property of the message (234)
what makes smoking sticky is completely different fro m the kinds of things that make it contagious (238)
2 possible strategies for stopping the spread of smoking; 1. To prevent the percussion givers from smoking in the first place — the rebellious teens hardly likely to be the most susceptible to rational health advice 2. Possibly to convince all those who to look to people for permission that they should look elsewhere (238)
Colorado adoption project: a study that followed children that were adopted to see if they resemble their adopted parents but results showed that there were few similarities so does that mean genes make a large portion of who you are? Not really, a major factor is peer influence (241)
now when you add other influences such that smokers who are depressed are using tobacco as a cheap way of treating their own depression (246)
we’ve been obsessed with changing attitudes towards tobacco on a mass scale, but we haven’t managed to reach the groups whose attitude needs di change the most (250)
we have to stop fighting this kind of experimentation — ex. Of those who have ever tried cocaine, less than 1% are regular users; we gave to accept it and even to embrace it — teens are always going to be fascinated by other ‘cool’ people: we should make sure that experimentation doesn’t have any serious consequences (251)
Conclusion: Focus, Test, Believe
the law of the few says that connectors, mavens, and salesman are responsible for starting word of mouth epidemics — those are the people you need to be in contact with to start (256)
we are actually powerfully influenced by our surroundings, our immediate context, and the personalities around us (259)
tipping points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action (259)
Afterword: Tipping Point Lessons From the Real World
an example from schools in low income communities in Oakland — wanted good teacher at those schools but nothing really grabbed the teachers or principles but what if they got good principles to create their team to tackle the assignment together — then now it feels like a team (264)
epidemic in isolation vs epidemic in reaction; isolation is where it happens through no influence whereas in reaction is through an influence (266)
‘fax effect’ where one machine is not worth anything as it’s the only one how can it communicate — then the 2nd was invented that made the first way more valuable (272)
when people are overwhelmed by information and develop immunity to traditional forms of communication, they turn instead for advice and information to the people in their lives whom they respect, admire, and trust — cure for immunity is finding Mavens, connectors and salesman’s (275)
finding mavens, connectors and salesman are not by worldly status but by particular standing they have among their friends — they have love for them (277)