So far I have enjoyed reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.  Last year I read Outliers by him, so I was familiar with his style of writing.  What Gladwell does so well is to dig deep into a large problem and find the tiniest thing that set in motion this change.  He calls them the three principles- one being contagiousness; two, the fact that little causes can have big effects, and three that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment. He calls this one dramatic moment when everything can change as the Tipping Point. It’s kind of like the boiling point, when everything starts to change very quickly. There were a few very interesting examples that Gladwell provided.  One of these examples was in New York City and how after the mid 70’s the next two decades experienced an extremely drastic decline in crime.  The police obviously took credit, along with many other groups, but Gladwell doesn’t buy these cliché answers.  Her rather points to the behaviors of criminals, and their change in behaviors. 

I also thought it was interesting that Gladwell points out it is tough for us to expect the idea of the Tipping Point.  We have in our minds a specific biological meaning of contagiousness, and don’t necessarily relate that to ideas- things like fashion trends. It’s hard to accept that huge changes can come from small events.  We like to think everything works proportionally, but often times that is not the case.  I am looking forward to reading more of Gladwell’s book!