Free Book Friday: The Tipping Point
27. Nov, 2009 
12 Comments
“The Tipping Point is that magical moment when an idea , trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
To me, it was the closest thing to answering a question I had been turning over for the past year… how does one person go from living a perfectly normal life, to deciding, seemingly out of the blue, to chuck it all and do something completely different. This book deals with that times a million. How does a fad begin? How does the massive collective eye of a society change it’s focus and decide seemingly overnight to try something unexpected?
As a writer, someone who spends most of her time thinking of ways to help people overcome their internal objectives in order to find a more meaningful life, I’m curious about how people think. Malcolm Gladwell is one of those people too. He’s incurably interested in the details of how things work, especially when it goes against the expected.
It’s soft science, a kind of weekend intellectualism that frames the entire narrative, but still deftly weaves real world examples and case studies to examine how little ideas become big changes. If you’re someone that believes strongly in the individual will, this book might shake some of that. Whether talking about Paul Revere’s midnight ride or the overnight spread of teen suicide in Micronesia or the boom in popularity of a certain shoe in the 1990′s, it might surprise you how these things begin (the power of a few) and how influenced we are by our environment and the people around us.
On the individual level it’s interesting to apply Gladwell’s concepts. In my life, I wasn’t thrust into travel by some major event. It was the smallest detail the changed me from workaholic corporate drone to status-dismissing free-living traveler. I didn’t get fired or become an alcoholic or get cancer or divorce my husband. I had a perfectly good job and a big project and about a three month period where my work slowed down from hyper-overload to almost nil. Instead of enjoying a little downtime, I plotted my escape. What was the difference in my situation? Context. My environment. The people around me. All influencing me in ways I wouldn’t have suspected. Until I tipped.
Want a Free Copy?
Leave a comment below and tell me what you’d like to bring over the tipping point. I’ll choose the winner on next week’s Free Book Friday.
Announcing Last Week’s Winner of The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo
Brandi who wrote, “I would love this book as I want to travel but have no single friends that I can travel with. Seeing as I live along and none of my married friends want me to tag along on their vacations (third wheel much?) I do all my traveling alone. However, I haven’t been able to travel along because of all the things I hear that happen to female travelers that are all by themselves. Obviously you can see how much this book truly appeals to me. Maybe then I could work up the courage to just leave all the happy couples behind and live and be happy being single!” Brandi, you got it– this book is perfect for you.
Of course my answer is obvious, right?
PortaPocket has been so well received by people who “get it” but it’s hard to get some people to recognize the value of how this makes life easier even IF they like to carry a purse/bag around by habit.
I thought perhaps after our TODAY show feature it’d catch on fast,and things were good for awhile there, but media attention yields only a short-lived gain. There is a lot that needs to happen to sustain. And the economy is not in my favor right now (or anyone’s for that matter!)
Harpo producers asked for and rec’d samples in mid Oct but who knows if they’ll use it on air. I’d love to think they’d see the value in this (gals in some High Schools are resticted from carrying purses around to class, and what about bridesmaid’s needs and nightclubbers, among other things, not to mention the people who are diabetic and have insulin pumps or need to carry EpiPens, etc…but I digress…:-))
In any event, this book is really cool and I have read it before when my aunt loaned it to me. But I’d love to have a copy to refer to again and again.
THANKS for the chance!
I wish to use the ideas in the “Tipping Point” to address how to work with students. I hope to work with them to not just manage their classes and experiences at the university where I teach but to help them gain a deeper understanding of their decision-making. Students need assistance in seeing how profound and important the decisions that they make now. Especially as they begin their college experience and connect their career plans and sense of self to the decisions that they make.
I’d love to read this book for two reasons.
First, I tend to think I’m fairly immune to ‘trends’, and I’m sure it would be interesting to see all the little ways in which that’s not true.
But second and probably more important, as someone who’s just about to start pitching my novel to publishers, I’d like to have as good a grasp of marketing as I can possibly achieve. I’ve done some successful but highly localised marketing for theatre productions in the past, but I need to start understanding the global scale.
Rachel Cotterill´s last blog ..Green Vegetable Risotto
I would love to read this book. Just finished reading his latest release “What the dog…” and feel like I am playing catchup.
Grrrl, I’m about to tip… Thanks for summing up this book (I’ve seen it in the stores and have oddly been drawn to picking it up but I never did but now I shall keep an eye out for it). Also, bravo to you for finding the courage to change your life in such a 180 degree way. It seems so extreme and drastic and yet, it makes crystal clear sense if you can find a way, a resource of skills, etc… to tip well. I feel its like something many of us are leaning towards during these times of economic change or what have you but I guess, the appeal of a tipping point is timeless, really.
grrrltraveler´s last blog ..The Good, the Bad & the Inevitable of a Solo Traveling *Beginner*
Well, I’m on the verge of moving my life towards location indepedence. Would be nice if this book tipped me over.
I read this book recently after having read Outlliers and Blink and loved it. I love exploring how people make decisions. I also love that each of us can play a part in a trend.
Crissy´s last blog ..Egypt: Aswan to Edfu
There’s a trend already on the tipping point, just about dangling off the edge. I hope it moves beyond ‘fad’, however, and becomes a true lifestyle change. I’m speaking of the slow food movement – the move toward local, sustainable, *real* food. One of the upsides to the to economic downturn is the growth of this movement – and even more so, the application of this type of thinking to other parts of life. Now there are slow money movements – the idea of investing in local, sustainable commerce; and even slow parenting – bringing home the idea that kids are so over-parented these days that we’re raising a generation of people who won’t know how to stand on their own two feet.
I’d be curious to see if this book discusses the difference between fads and fashion trends vs. true cultural shifts.
As always, I enjoy reading your posts and look forward to seeing each delivery in my inbox.
Happy Trails!
I would like this book because I live in Mainland China. Enough said. Send it to my dad and he’ll mail it to me. Save you the shipping cost.
Now what do I want to see pushed off the tipping point? Well, first it needs to get to that point first maybe. I’ve read that only 18-34% of American’s own a passport. Sure, traveling cost more than those who live in Europe. However, we as American’s need to get over ourselves. (Living in China and traveling to over 30 countries, I think I have) I can’t tell you how many people I knew in my old profession (car sales) who would say, “Why do I need to travel? We have everything to see in America.” Yes and no. American’s need to travel to open their minds more. To see people as how they really are. Traveling can break down so many barriers. I even broke down a few while I was in North Korea in August. (Though admittingly, I may never no for sure. That’s a whole nother reality.) Experiencing different cultures is the ONLY true way to understanding them and maybe bringing about a little peace in this world of ours.
So that’s what I want pushed off the tipping point. More American’s opening their mind to international travel. Know how we can get that done? (Besides your excellent bolg?)
what a great a book! have you read Blink? it´s a great read as well – I love how in Blink he talks about stereotypes… as travelers, making friends around the world, from different backgrounds, our stereotypes are a bit different, simply because we understand that our reality is not the absolute truth. When we meet someone from another culture, inevitably we scan them, looking for traits and features that resemble something – familiar or a stereotype. What I love about this is that by getting to know more people across the globe, I can better understand that the more I travel, the more I meet people like me, humans, with so many things in common.
Adriana´s last blog ..smaller world
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