1. “The tipping point is a biography of an idea. That idea is that ideas spread just like viruses do” Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point). The author Malcolm Gladwell wrote this book to explain to the public that the trends we encounter daily are very comparable to communicable diseases. Gladwell supports his thesis by making his research from many industries, fields, and stories. Gladwell explains that in order for a trend or an idea to spread, there are many factors that make it a phenomenon. Factors called the Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Gladwell utilizes these factors all throughout the book with stories and research to support his thesis explaining why some trends spread while other failed. …show more content…
How influential people that are categorized as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen help these trends get started. And when a trend or idea is able to stick to the consumer or the public mind it is called the stickiness factor. How the environment a person dwells is in has a greater influence upon a person’s emotions and personalities. That with a bit of luck and these factors an idea or trend can reach the tipping point can become just a like a contagious …show more content…
Initially I would have never read a book like this unless it was not part of the summer work. However this book has sparked an interest in me to find and read more books such as the Tipping Point. Reading this book was very rewarding if was opened up to a new horizon of thinking and how the world operates. When the author talked on the Law of the Few it made me thinks which category I stood in was I connector, maven, or a salesperson or maybe a mixture. Due to the fact that Gladwell had done such in depth research for this book I learned many new stories such as how Sesame Street was created and how a community of women was able to be educated upon breast cancer. As well as the idea were in the midst of a crisis and there are multiple people around and no one call for help, because they assume there neighbor has called or will called but when they are alone they arise to the problem. That is why in a crisis it is important to make eye contact or some sort of contact with another individual to call 911 or find help. Gladwell 's theory on the power of context was very relatable with the idea that once we become adapted to a certain atmosphere it is very likely we will change to adapt to that atmosphere. A theory such as this I am able to relate to my own life in my tenth grade Spanish class there were many eleventh and twelfth graders who were slackers and in order to fit in I became a slacker so I could adapt to that environment. As well as when my cousins came to
In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was implementing its tenth mission. However, the spaceship exploded after 73 seconds because the O-ring seal failed. In this technological era, countless disasters are bound to occur frequently. Malcolm Gladwell’s essay “Blowup: Who Can Be Blamed for A Disaster Like the Challenger Explosion? No One, and We’d Better Get Used to It,” suggests that people should not be surprised by catastrophes, and at the same time, they should be prepared for them to happen at any time. People often make decisions with acknowledged risks; the occurrence of a disaster is too complex; and finally, people always place too much trust in technology.
Snap judgements are those immediate conclusions we make when we meet someone for the first time or experience something new or different. Many of us make snap judgements every single day of our lives without even being conscious of it. In fact, it only takes us a couple seconds to decide whether we like something or not. Snap judgements are a mental process we all do unconsciously. According to our class reading “Blink” by Malcom Gladwell, Gladwell states that most of us have experienced snap judgments, but we feel like we should not trust it. Snap judgements are not always precise but Gladwell believes we should ignore these odds and trust our snap judgements.
Malcom Gladwell, is an author of numerous New York Times Best Sellers, who uses several techniques in his writing to clarify and support his argument. Gladwell’s techniques are using stories to appeal to the reader’s emotions. Using scientific facts and research to logically strengthen his argument. Also, writing about controversial issues to establish credibility with the readers. These techniques are found in “Offensive Play”, “Small Change”, and “Harlan, Kentucky”, works by Gladwell.
The book makes me understand the importance of reading and know how weak I’m in reading comprehension. Not only is my reading speed slow, but also my thoughts after reading are immature. I haven’t fix some time to read English books before so my background knowledge and vocabulary are far from abundant.
In Malcom Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, he dissects the nature of the epidemic. There are three factors which affect an epidemic’s ability to “tip”: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. The most significant portion of the book for me was the explanation of the Power of Context as told through the story of Kitty Genovese.
For generations, only certain people have achieved success - they are known as geniuses or outliers; however, they did not obtain it on high IQs and innate talents alone. In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell, #1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, reveals the transparent secret of success behind every genius that made it big. Intertwined with that, Gladwell builds a convincing implication that the story behind the success of all geniuses is that they were born at the right place, at the right time and took advantage of it. To convey the importance of the outlier’s fortunate circumstances to his readers, he expresses a respective, colloquial tone when examining their lives. Gladwell begins his examination of an outlier’s
In this article Malcolm Gladwell criticizes health care Industry and harsh realities of uninsured Americans .He analyzes various facets presented by various researchers and politicians which only leads to further denial of health care for the needy and increased complexity of the system. He starts with the paper presented by Susan Starr Sered and Rushika Fernandopulle about the “Uninsured in America” which according to them is mainly because of poverty. People cannot afford it because they do not have Jobs and they cannot work because they are sick. If they happen to visit the doctor, they have to pay bills which they cannot afford and end up bankrupting, the perfect vicious cycle. Next, he analyzes the various solutions suggested. According to the economists it is the “Moral hazard” the over consumption of the health care by the insured is to be blamed .This fear of “Moral Hazard” is believed to be the
Technology has had a negative impact on this generation- we have lost and forgotten many things because of it. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, he discusses the difference between social media activism and “real” activism and the loss of human connection that he has identified. He believes that with social media activism, we lack the connections a community should have because we don’t get together in person- we are satisfied with being connected through technology. He also thinks that as time goes on, we will only get worse when referring to the ideas that we are delusional because the issues we fight about (such as getting phones taken away) aren’t as important as we think.
In the article Threshold of Violence published by The New Yorker Magazine, author Malcolm Gladwell alludes to the cause of school shootings and why they transpire. Gladwell tries to make sense of the epidemic by consulting a study of riots by stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter. Granovetter sought to understand “why people do things that go against who they are or what they think is right, for instance, why typically non-violent, law-abiding people join a riot”(Granovetter). He concluded that people’s likelihood of joining a riot is determined by the number of people already involved. The ones who start a riot don’t need anyone else to model this behavior for them that they have a “threshold” of zero. But others will riot only if someone
I think this book has immense amount of value to present day readers. Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, is trying to illustrate the consequences of individuality, dependence of technology and its real purpose, and the future warnings of what our society is becoming.
Gladwell’s chief judgement is that ranking systems, that are heterogenous and claim to be comprehensive, cannot be employed to accurately or fairly represent all parties. Gladwell’s key reasons for his judgement are that colleges, especially, cannot be ranked according to a specific set of standards because there exists no direct way to measure the quality, success rate, and the level of challenge for students.
What would happen if our world today was monotonous, sorrowful, and grey? What if no one was here to form new creations, and think of bold ideas? Would triumph have a definition? Would there be outliers in our world today? We are constantly thinking, always generating new ideas and forming new thoughts. People even proceed by creating inventions, and building objects no one would of thought would be made today. But, what we don’t perceive is how they became successful and how they took advantage of the moment that was given to them. In the novel, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, the author explains that an outlier is one who is given an opportunity and knows how to take advantage. He believes that in order for a person to be successful they need at least ten thousand hours of hard work and effort in order to succeed at a skill. It is clear to me that like Malcolm Gladwell, I believe
Overall I enjoyed reading this book, I read it a few years ago in high school, but I took more from it this time and was able to apply it more to my experiences and events I have witnessed. I’m glad the novel was assigned for me to read because it really made me think about the world today and how we interact in the world. It actually brought up questions and connections that I didn’t see when I read the book years ago. This novel will always be relevant and I’m sure will be read years from now.
...umstances. I feel like their theory best illustrates how an individual with weak bonds to society from childhood throughout adulthood can change their deviant behavior if met with a salient life event. This theory explains why some people can change while others cannot. Some people are met and choose to embrace these salient life force events that allow them to conform to society while other people either do not have these salient life force events or choose to not embrace them.
Dodds, D. J. (2007). Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation. JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, 441-458.