(no subject)
I feel like everyone in the world has heard of Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point (which may have been why I was resistant to reading it for so long) but, for those who have not: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is basically an attempt to explain trend theory and idea transmission. (It is only a shame it was written in the days before cat macros.) It is not the fault of The Tipping Point that as I was reading it, I kept being insistently reminded of Connie Willis' Bellwether, a novel about . . . someone who is attempting to explain trend theory and idea transmission. Bellwether [SPOILER] basically ends with the protagonist going "I'VE GOT IT! People are like SHEEP! And trends are caused by LEADER SHEEP!" Which, fond as I am of Connie Willis in general, has never seemed particularly deep or insightful to me.
The Tipping Point does not actually think that trends are caused by LEADER SHEEP, exactly, but it does attempt to narrow trend theory down to a few relatively basic factors. One of the book's major claims is that trends are caused, or at least helped along, by the support of particular special types of people who are good at connecting people and spreading information along. There are a lot of very interesting studies and experiments quoted - some of which I had heard of before, others not - and Gladwell is definitely an engaging writer, but I am not sure that it is as much a Grand Unified Theory of Everything as Gladwell thinks it is. (On the other hand, I never believe in Grand Unified Theories of Everything. I read nonfiction like some people watch the skies for enemy forces. CONSTANT VIGILANCE.) A good example is the Paul Revere theory. "Paul Revere succeeded in his midnight ride because he had a special kind of personality type who fits my criteria for these special people!" says Gladwell, and draws an engaging and entertaining portrait to demonstrate it that I very much enjoyed reading, but nonetheless is a bit hard to use for conclusive evidence given the fact that Paul Revere lived over two hundred years ago and so it's difficult to state much about what his personality was like.
Unrelated to anything factual or psychological, I have to say, the most entertaining part of the book for me was during the part where Gladwell talks about the shift in crime levels in New York City in the 1980's and the 1990's, and draws a hilariously dramatic picture of a CITY OF TERROR, where the streets are a place of constant danger, the graffiti-covered subways lurch emptily through the underground, and someone might snap and start shooting passersby AT ANY MOMENT. I mean, I guess it is possible that I simply blocked all the gunshots and days of scuttling through the streets in full body armor out of my infant memories of Manhattan . . .
The Tipping Point does not actually think that trends are caused by LEADER SHEEP, exactly, but it does attempt to narrow trend theory down to a few relatively basic factors. One of the book's major claims is that trends are caused, or at least helped along, by the support of particular special types of people who are good at connecting people and spreading information along. There are a lot of very interesting studies and experiments quoted - some of which I had heard of before, others not - and Gladwell is definitely an engaging writer, but I am not sure that it is as much a Grand Unified Theory of Everything as Gladwell thinks it is. (On the other hand, I never believe in Grand Unified Theories of Everything. I read nonfiction like some people watch the skies for enemy forces. CONSTANT VIGILANCE.) A good example is the Paul Revere theory. "Paul Revere succeeded in his midnight ride because he had a special kind of personality type who fits my criteria for these special people!" says Gladwell, and draws an engaging and entertaining portrait to demonstrate it that I very much enjoyed reading, but nonetheless is a bit hard to use for conclusive evidence given the fact that Paul Revere lived over two hundred years ago and so it's difficult to state much about what his personality was like.
Unrelated to anything factual or psychological, I have to say, the most entertaining part of the book for me was during the part where Gladwell talks about the shift in crime levels in New York City in the 1980's and the 1990's, and draws a hilariously dramatic picture of a CITY OF TERROR, where the streets are a place of constant danger, the graffiti-covered subways lurch emptily through the underground, and someone might snap and start shooting passersby AT ANY MOMENT. I mean, I guess it is possible that I simply blocked all the gunshots and days of scuttling through the streets in full body armor out of my infant memories of Manhattan . . .