The Tipping Point

I'm not sure how unique this is, but I've noticed something distinct about the culture here at Christ In Youth - at least in the Conference Department. When certain people read a new book if they like it, the book will make the rounds through most of the people in the department (or at least several)- dare I refer to this as the Maven's in action? It happened with Raving Fans, it happened with Purple Cow, and it happened with The Tipping Point.

After listening to people pull buzz words from this book I decided it was time for me to read it myself. Somehow people around here have managed to apply it to everything we do, so I figured it must be a good book.

I would give it a B, that's about the best I can do. On the upside, Gladwell has some pretty interesting stories to tell. And I would say he did a fair job of using some pretty random anecdotal evidence to support his ideas. I did find the discussion of how an epidemic "tips" because of some small act a few people did very interesting.

There were a couple of things I could have done without. Gladwell renamed categories of people that have been named 30 different things over the last 30 years of business and marketing literature. Now was it handy for him to create his own names for the Salesmen, Mavens, and Connectors? Sure. And since that's the vernacular that is going around my office these days I'll probably use these labels. The reality is that he didn't identify anything new here, just put his own label on it. This is the primary issue I have with the pseudo-business book of the month that goes around. People with no background information read something like this and think the guy is a genius. Reality is he is a smart guy like the next smart guy that will re-frame the same ideas and make a million selling them to the same people in a couple of years.

The other thing I could have done without was what came across to me as his political soapbox in the middle of the book. I was cruising along when suddenly I felt like I'd been dropped in a left-wing rally decrying all the ills of society and promoting cures that were worse than the causes. Thankfully he found his way back to the point and moved on...eventually. I just have a hard time blaming crime in cities on the cities or the government or the fact that it's a low income area. While I applaud unorthodox efforts to deal with drug abuse, crime, and the spread of STDs I take exception to any explanation for those epidemics that relieves the people involved of any responsibility for their actions.

The one thing I think Gladwell really left out was any discussion of the mathematical phenomenon that goes along with his theories about the Tipping Point. That's great that the salesmen, mavens, and connectors convince all these people to do stuff, but show me how the math works because that's a fundamental part of it. I would like to think that he left it out to avoid putting the typical reader to sleep - rumor has it that most people don't like to have to slog through lots of equations when they read (that's why I only use symbols found on a 4-function calculator here on my blog, I figure "math-lite" contains less tryptophan). For me it diminishes the significance of his conclusions because the numbers behind it aren't shown, leaving us to rely on anecdotes. That's not to say he's wrong because the math isn't explained, just makes me less confident that the Tipping Point applies to everything (as he would argue). Perhaps he felt like the mathematical explanation was too common and didn't want to rehash it.

I find reading some of these buzz books interesting. Some of them are great, others are mediocre. Mostly they are just saying in a simpler format the same things I learned in college. Now in many cases they explore a specific area of a topic more intensely than your average b-school class, they just come at it from a less academic angle. The nice thing is that they tend to give more practical application than most college profs do, so perhaps as trade-books they are more beneficial than going with a textbook as the book of the month.

I would recommend The Tipping Point, recognizing its limitations. It certainly gives some interesting viewpoints on many of the phenomenons we see playing out in the news and in our lives.