Book: The Tipping Point

[Erudite]

Now, I'm only two chapters in, but I'm totally thinking a discussion group on The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell would be AWESOME. Has anyone read it? He also wrote Blink...which I'm going to read next as soon as it is turned back into the library. It's the newer one though, so you might have seen it around on lists, if anyone pays attention to that kind of thing. (I only know that because my sister bought Blink in the airport and you generally can only find books like that when they're on some kind of list.)

The subtitle of the book is "How little things can make a big difference". The "tipping point" refers to the point where something goes from a little thing to a big thing...and he uses biological epidemics as the way to understand the idea, because an epidemic starts with just a hundred or so people and then all of a sudden will shoot up...he cited an example of that happening and describes the graph as nearly flat to the tipping point and then going up at a right angle. This kind of occurrence is common. The book is about who and how those are created when they are "word of mouth" epidemics, like fashion trends. Now that may sound somewhat trivial, but his point is that we all have a place in creating epidemics and we can be a part of a positive epidemic or a part of a negative one.

That's about as much as I've understood so far. If it interests you, it'd be great to get a group together!

[5ft Diva]

This one doesn't resonate w/ me. Would you tell me what Blink is about?

[Erudite]

Well, I finished this book. I wasn't nearly as excited about it by the end as I was about the beginning. There is lots in it to learn and lots to think about, but toward the end he kinda went off on families in a way that I just don't believe. He was quoting scientific studies and all that, but I kept thinking through the final third of the book, when I put this down, I'm going to go get the Proclamation on the Family and remind myself of what God thinks about all this and deal in truth, not in "science". I know science has a place and I think this guy's ideas have a place too...were they interpreted and applied in a different way, but for me, I'd prefer to deal with God's truth.

In the beginning of reading this book, I was all excited about it because it felt so applicable and that we could learn so much from it. And when I called 5D to talk her into reading this book with me, we had an EXCELLENT conversation about it and both took from it what we needed at the time. But after sharing it with 5D, it was like I just fizzled on the book and by the end I could see why. I think 5D and I had what we needed out of the beginning and the end became irrelevant. Isn't that interesting though? Just one more example of pulling the good out of the world and not letting the bad in, I think.

Anyway, the beginning of the book was interesting and it was interesting to see what science thinks about the family (which by the way is under attack by more than just rabid politicians...scientists are at it too), but it's not true, so there's little point in spending much time discussing it.

But thanks for listening!

[Erudite]

Blink, BTW is about making split second decisions and how we go about that. I only ever got the introduction read for that, so I don't know much beyond that. I would guess that it'll be somewhat the same as The Tipping Point though...in that he'll cite scientific studies and tell us some very interesting things that you'll need to read with care. I don't think I'll read it though due to my reaction to end of the first book.

EDIT: My sister assures me that Blink is much better and stays better all the way through.