The Tipping Point: a Summary
“The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by: Malcolm Gladwell
A Summary:
The Tipping Point presents us mainly with three rules or characteristics of “the tipping point” or an epidemic, and these are:
1. The Law of the Few
2. The Stickiness Factor
3. The Power of Context
The Law of the Few
There are three kinds of “the few”, namely: Connectors, Mavens and the Salesmen.
The Connectors are the kinds of people who know lots of people, and are able to get a message across and to many in a matter of a short period of time, depending on the context. This is explicitly explained in Gladwell’s example of the six degrees of separation in his book. The Connectors are the kinds of people who have their foot in so many worlds with the effect of bringing them all together, and he strengthens this statement by explaining the strength of the weak ties. While we always choose who we want to meet, and reject those who do not look right, the Connectors are those kinds of people who see the possibility in others.
The Mavens are the kinds of people who accumulate knowledge, and then make the connectors learn about new information; the connectors rely on them to connect with new information. Mavens are more actively engaged in gathering and more socially motivated, as they are the individuals who want to solve other people’s problems, generally by solving his own and who solves his own problems by solving other people’s problems. They must not be mixed up with persuaders—who are the salesmen—they are the educators and helpers.
The Salesmen are the kinds of people who have mastered the art of persuasion wherein they use verbal and non-verbal cues to say or to imply that little things can make as much of a differences as big things. We have to remember that for the salesmen, persuasion works often in ways that we do not appreciate.
To summarize the concept of the Law of the Few, we can define the Connectors as the social glue, or the ones
A Summary:
The Tipping Point presents us mainly with three rules or characteristics of “the tipping point” or an epidemic, and these are:
1. The Law of the Few
2. The Stickiness Factor
3. The Power of Context
The Law of the Few
There are three kinds of “the few”, namely: Connectors, Mavens and the Salesmen.
The Connectors are the kinds of people who know lots of people, and are able to get a message across and to many in a matter of a short period of time, depending on the context. This is explicitly explained in Gladwell’s example of the six degrees of separation in his book. The Connectors are the kinds of people who have their foot in so many worlds with the effect of bringing them all together, and he strengthens this statement by explaining the strength of the weak ties. While we always choose who we want to meet, and reject those who do not look right, the Connectors are those kinds of people who see the possibility in others.
The Mavens are the kinds of people who accumulate knowledge, and then make the connectors learn about new information; the connectors rely on them to connect with new information. Mavens are more actively engaged in gathering and more socially motivated, as they are the individuals who want to solve other people’s problems, generally by solving his own and who solves his own problems by solving other people’s problems. They must not be mixed up with persuaders—who are the salesmen—they are the educators and helpers.
The Salesmen are the kinds of people who have mastered the art of persuasion wherein they use verbal and non-verbal cues to say or to imply that little things can make as much of a differences as big things. We have to remember that for the salesmen, persuasion works often in ways that we do not appreciate.
To summarize the concept of the Law of the Few, we can define the Connectors as the social glue, or the ones