Continuing on with the book, I just have to reiterate how much I absolutely was enthralled with it. Gladwell is a great writer who brings up a TON of great points. It's interesting in a very unique way- he makes the reader think about life/the world in a way he/she never has- and that, in itself, is special. I'm calling the entire experience "Gladwellian."
Having said that, I thought the next half of the book was pretty redundant. He touch on some new stories, anecdotes, etc, but for the most part what he was trying to prove was already proven. Perhaps if he restructured the book a tad differently it wouldn't feel like he rehashed a lot.
Gladwell has an interesting idea about the number 150, which seemed a bit of a stretch to me. He explains that groups/fan bases under 150 people have a different quality than if they are over 150 people. Once a group/fan base goes over the 150 mark, the fan base which once was tight nit and starts to change into something that can launch something into success- the "Tipping Point," in this case. He cites the book "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood " to state his case.
The next dissection is that of AirWalk shoes, and how they skyrocketed from a niche brand (A la "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" book readers,) to a national success. I have to admit, I had never heard of AirWalk shoes, until reading this book. Maybe the reason why I had never heard of them is that the "cool" level of the shoes declined significantly after a series of mistakes by their publicity and management team. Gladwell writes that they were once available to small stores and then "sold out," after being sold in Department stores- and then only started offering one line, in a greedy effort to save money.
Finally, Gladwell tries to dissect the confusing teenage mind and uses the juxtaposition of teen suicide and teen smoking. Both, he says are risky things that teens do (which would make for a great anti-smoking PSA.) Gladwell states that teens are much more eager to copy one another, and the reason for a spike in suicides and a spike in smoking is just that these teens are trying to emulate on another. The downside is- when they start smoking cigarettes, they become addicted and when they commit suicide.... they die. I loved the juxtaposition of cigarettes and suicide in this chapter and thought it was Gladwell's most effective. Suicide and smoking are both harmful things to do your body and their relationship to one another should be examined more. It can even be said (though it's sort of a stretch,) that every time you smoke a cigarette you're committing suicide in a small way.
The last chapter is more or less a wrap up and delves a bit into breast cancer and African-American women. He chronicles a case of where they were given info about breast cancer at a hairstylist, instead of at a doctor's office or on the street- and how women are much more perceptive to hear such information with a hairstylist- where they are most comfortable. Gladwell states that this is more of a "band-aid" solution to the problem and while effective, doesn't fix the fact that breast cancer kills many, many women. Overall, the entire last chapter was a redeeming and great way to wrap up the book.
*"'Tipping Point': The Squeak-uel" works too.
COMING SOON: My look at "WISDOM OF CROWDS."
1 comment:
Astute overview!
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