Malcolm Gladwell captures the essence of trends and social behaviors in his novel, ‘The Tipping Point.’ What aims to evaluate how epidemics occur in society, Gladwell illuminates the point to which this phenomenon happens and what it takes to push new fashion trends or change the way people throughout the world think. Here is a collection to some of the best quotes from ‘The Tipping Point’ to remember.
“A book, I was taught long ago in English class, is a living and breathing document that grows richer with each new reading.”
“A vervet, in other words, is very good at processing certain kinds of vervetish information, but not so good at processing other kinds of information.”
“Acquaintances, in sort, represent a source of social power, a”
“At three and four and five, children may not be able to follow complicated plots and subplots. But the narrative form, psychologists now believe, is absolutely central to them.”
“Economists often talk about the 80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the “work” will be done by 20 percent of the participants. In most societies, 20 percent of criminals commit 80 percent of crimes. Twenty percent of motorists cause 80 percent of all accidents. Twenty percent of beer drinkers drink 80 percent of all beer. When it comes to epidemics, though, this disproportionality becomes even more extreme: a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work.”
“Emotion goes inside-out. Emotional contagion, though, suggests that the opposite is also true. If I can make you smile, I can make you happy. If I can make you frown, I can make you sad. Emotion, in this sense, goes outside-in.”
“Emotion is contagious.”
“Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur.”
“For younger kids, repetition is really valuable. They demand it. When they see a show over and over again, they not only are understanding it better, which is a form of power, but just by predicting what is going to happen, I think they feel a real sense of affirmation and self-worth.”
In honor of Usain Bolt's magnificent win today at the world track championships, time for a little national pride. pic.twitter.com/VK8Boar2tN
— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) August 27, 2015
“If we want to, say, develop schools in disadvantaged communities that can successfully counteract the poisonous atmosphere of their surrounding neighborhoods, this tells us that we’re probably better off building lots of little schools than one or two big ones.”
“If you paid careful attention to the structure and format of your material, you could dramatically enhance stickiness.”
“If you want to bring a fundamental change in people’s belief and behavior…you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs can be practiced and expressed and nurtured.”
“In the end, Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.”
“In the six degrees of separation, not all degrees are equal.”
“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not, With the slightest push – in just the right place – it can be tipped.”
“Man evolved to feel strongly about few people, short distances, and relatively brief intervals of time; and these are still the dimensions of life that are important to him.”
“Of course, kids don’t always like repetition. Whatever they are watching has to be complex enough to allow, upon repeated exposure, for deeper and deeper levels of comprehension. At the same time, it can’t be so complex that the first time around it baffles the children and turns them off.”
“Of the three, the third trait—the idea that epidemics can rise or fall in one dramatic moment—is the most important, because it is the principle that makes sense of the first two and that permits the greatest insight into why modern change happens the way it does.”
“Sesame Street succeeded because it learned how to make television sticky.”
The incomparable Meb and one of his biggest groupies. pic.twitter.com/NPW4DPTuw9
— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) April 24, 2015
“Six degrees of separation doesn’t mean that everyone is linked to everyone else in just six steps. It means that a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, and the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few.”
“So what does correlate with brain size? The answer, Dunbar argues, is group size. If you look at any species of primate-at every variety of monkey and ape-the larger their neocortex is, the larger the average size of the groups they live with.”
“That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.”
“The Band-Aid is an inexpensive, convenient, and remarkably versatile solution to an astonishing array of problems.”
“The Law of the Few says that there are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them. The lesson of stickiness is the same. There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.”
“The point about Connectors is that by having a foot in so many different worlds, they have the effect of bringing them all together.”
“The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.”
“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
“There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.”
“There are specific situations so powerful that they can overwhelm our inherent predispositions.”
“There is a concept in cognitive psychology called the channel capacity, which refers to the amount of space in our brain for certain kinds of information.”
My greatest moment ever. pic.twitter.com/u0vlydOaao
— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) January 16, 2014
“There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.”
“Those who are successful at creating social epidemics do not just do what they think is right. They deliberately test their intuitions.”
“To be someone’s best friend requires a minimum investment of time. More than that, though, it takes emotional energy. Caring about someone deeply is exhausting.”
“To make sense of social epidemics, we must first understand that human communication has its own set of very unusual and counterintuitive rules.”
“Two people may arrive at a conversation with very different conversational patterns. But almost instantly they reach a common ground.”
“We all want to believe that the key to making an impact on someone lies with the inherent quality of the ideas we present. But in none of these cases did anyone substantially alter the content of what they were saying. Instead, they tipped the message by tinkering, on the margin, with the presentation of their ideas…..”
“We are trained to think that what goes into any transaction or relationship or system must be directly related, in intensity and dimension, to what comes out.”
“We have, in short, somehow become convinced that we need to tackle the whole problem, all at once. But the truth is that we don’t. We only need to find the stickiness Tipping Points.”
“When people are overwhelmed with information and develop immunity to traditional forms of communication, they turn instead for advice and information to the people in their lives whom they respect, admire, and trust. The cure for immunity is finding Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen.””
Understanding what the tipping point is and how to thrust your own ideas into its course means that you can impact any area of your life. In this video, tipping point leadership is discussed and how you can go about inspiring others.
Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here.