The idea of "the tipping point" is sort of like the straw the broke the camel's back. It's the handful of people who suddenly make a fashion statement cool; or an event in the news that suddenly drives crime dramatically down in a big city. "Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push — in just the right place — it can be tipped."Gladwell's theory is that you need three things to reach the tipping point ... (1) the law of the few, (2) the stickiness factor, and (3) the power of context. The law of the few is like how 20% of people do 80% of the work; 20% of beer drinkers drink 80% of the beer; a handful of sexually active people spread the most diseases; etc. One anecdote he gave was how a woman in NY was brutally attacked and 38 people saw and didn't call 911 ... apparently when there are a lot of people observing something bad happening, everyone thinks that someone else will call for help; but if just one person sees something, then that person is much more likely to call the police themselves.
What does that mean for me in Atlanta? If something bad is happening to me ... do I try to single out one person, make eye contact, and say, "YOU! Call the police!" Hmm.
Gladwell also talks about how if you make a list of everyone you know, chances are a small handful of people introduced you to most of those people. That small handful of people are called "Connectors" - or "social butterflies," as my mom would call them.
If anyone knows any of these Connectors here in Atlanta, let me know ...
All in all, a great book - I've added Gladwell's other well known books, Blink and Outliers to my list to read, too.
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