Sociologisch werkje. Heel vlot leesbaar, niets wereldschokkends tegengekomen. Ontspannend, opfrissend. ( )

An interesting book about how small things can cause big things to happen. While Gladwell’s theories and anecdotes are interesting, they are really dated by when the book was written, the early 2000s. Because of that, there is no mention of probably the most impactful phenomenon of our time regarding change: social media. I would like to see Gladwell update the book with an edition that includes that. ( )

I loved it when I first read it. Many of the ideas in all the Gladwell books have been debunked in the replication crisis. RIP. A master of persuasive writing. Shame it's all nonsense. ( )

This was a best-seller so long ago that it doesn't use the word "epicentre" anywhere, and it even comes with a blurb from Bill Clinton (remember him?) on the back. Oddly, the quoted comment doesn't give any direct indication that Clinton has ever read the book — or encourages us to do so: He describes it as "that now-famous book that everybody is reading". Maybe the publisher is taking Gladwell's arguments literally, and considers Clinton as the kind of influencer who could nudge us into a purchase simply by telling us that everyone else is reading it...?

What Gladwell describes, at a very superficial level and without any kind of scientific analysis, is how outcomes in fields like marketing, public health, and social behaviour can be determined by rather small-scale inputs, as long as they are applied in exactly the right place. Which is probably something we all knew already. It's all presented quite charmingly, in the form of case-studies written in the best New Yorker style (frame the chapter with your big story, interrupting it with subsidiary pieces of evidence, identify an engaging representative person for each bit of the story, scatter in a few subjective elements...). So it's very readable, but it all leaves you with that vaguely unsatisfied feeling that you always get from books on pop psychology or business. A good disposable book for a shortish train journey. ( )

In this book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the concept of the "tipping point", that moment when an idea, a product or a mode of behaviour becomes suddenly - and sometimes spectacularly - successful. Gladwell identifies three elements which he believes are necessary for this to happen : (i) influential individuals who "spread the word" (what he calls "the law of the few") (ii) an attractiveness intrinsic in the "message" or idea (its "stickiness") (iii) the environment or "context" which can, in subtle and effective ways, lead to a "tipping point". Gladwell then delves into each of these three elements, illustrating them with several examples and anecdotes taken from the fields of social psychology, history, economics and anthropology.

This is not the book I'd generally read. However, it was given to me as a Christmas present (together with another two Gladwell books) and I surprised myself by eagerly lapping it up in a couple of days. Are Gladwell's theories "verifiable"? I honestly don't know, and there might be other writers out there who hold very different views. However, the book's arguments are certainly laid out lucidly and convincingly. And Gladwell does know how to tell a good story, making what could have been a dry, theoretical book really "stick". ( )