Now that he s gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the self-made man, he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky. Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to ma...

The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life, writes Malcolm Gladwell, is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do. Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell s The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject. For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a Connector: he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere wasn t just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston, he was also a Maven who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenome...

#Excellent Book (2008-03-03) In this book, Gladwell does a great job of explaining the tipping points of trends, fads, disease, etc, -basically any event imaginable. If we look close enough in our everyday lives we ll see the tipping point. After reading this book you should be able to see where it is exactly (almost) that mistakes are made, or good decisions are made. Great read -an eye opener for sure! (The idea is what attracts me as opposed to those that rate a book on the writing style, etc, especially for this style of information book. )

#I Just Tipped! (2008-01-17) When I published my own book a while back, my daughter gave me The Tipping Point to read. Even though I am a spiritual author, and generally only read books by other spiritual authors, I found this secular book to be very inspiring. In my work, I teach that there is a next right step that you are always being divinely guided to take -- a step that will help you fulfill your hearts desires in an effortless manner. That step is invariably a small step -- a tiny step, even. But those tiny steps, when taken one after another, prove to be miraculously effecti...

#The Hard Part Is Choosing What To Do First (2007-11-08) I was drawn into this book from the moment I cracked the spine. Each and every example had a very compelling start and story that left you wanting to talk to someone about what you had just learned. The topics are varied and range from Paul Revere s network to a syphilis outbreak in Baltimore to Blues Clues the children s t. v. program that made small changes to Sesame Street s premise and is revolutionized preschool education. Every time I took a break from reading I was thinking of how I could apply this the little things m...

#A fun and very interesting book (2007-05-30) I liked The Tipping Point very much. Gladwell does an excellent job explaining how Word of Mouth epidemics/Fads start, who contributes to creating it and who spreads the fad to make it known worldwide. I learned alot regarding teen smoking and how we have the power to counteract this horrible habit. In essence, Tipping Point is about social epidemics and how even the little things that people would seem to think are irrelevent may create big changes. Tipping Point is for the reader who is curious about how ppl think and how we as a whole...

#100 Monkeys Revisited (2007-03-31) Tipping Point is an excellent read. An engaging style sprinkled with humor and human interest make it flow easily. It reminds me of the concept of 100 Monkeys, whereby an idea gets to a critical point and suddenly becomes omnipresent. Anyone in business or marketing will enjoy the read and practical suggestions, direct and indirect, about promotion. Gladwell shows us all how easily our collective and individual psyches are manipulated. Budding psychologists and those interested in our inherent foibles will find the read entertaining and informat...