Review - The Tipping Point

Woody Allen took a speed reading course and subsequently finished reading "War and Peace" in 1 hour. "It is about Russia", he said, when asked to describe the book later.

I find myself in a similar situation. I took a speed reading course and read "The Tipping Point" really fast (I finished the book in about 3 hours, when normally it would have taken my twice that). I am doubly skeptical about my comprehension because I had heard and expected so much of this book, and was disappointed.

The author, Malcolm Gladwell theorizes that many phenominan in our society, from the abatement of a crime wave in New York, to the sudden fashionableness of hush puppies, are caused by a phenominan similar to that of an epidemic. He devids the important players in the spread of this 'contagion' into three catagories. The connectors are the people who are networked with a large section of the society. They are the ones with the connections to spread a contagion. The mavens are databases of the society, testing and eagerly giving opinion about the various products and choices that are out there. The salesmen do the actual work of convincing people to buy a product.

Gladwell brings to bear an impressive array of anecdotes and personalities to illustrate his theory. However, it feels at times that the stories and people have been a little stretched and a little distorted so as to make them fit neatly with the theory. Its either that, or its my comprehension thats distored. That damned speed reading course!

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