Customer Reviews
How else can we use the Tipping Point to Improve the World? - By: C. Clayton, 24 Jul 2008 
Malcolm Gladwell explains in his book The Tipping Point that it is possible for ideas, messages & behaviors to spread rapidly. Gladwell argues convincingly that to change an entire population it is not necessary to change everyone, only a smalll percentage of people.
The book's concept is powerful & explained very well by Gladwell. Only one slight critique. The book could have been much shorter. It provides more examples than necessary to get the point across. Having said that does not take away from the important (and useful) ideas that the book explains!
The point at which the ideas, messages or behaviors of a population changes rapidly is known as the tipping point. Similar to an epidemic, contagious behavior is caused by a smalll percentage of people.
Changing others by using contagious behavior has significant implications. Much can be accomplished by focusing efforts. Instead of trying to change an entire population, only a smalll percentage of people need to be convinced to change.
In one story about a tipping point, Malcolm Gladwell discusses how behavior of criminals in New York City was changed. This was done by understanding human behavior & implementing tactics to improve it.
In the 1980s & early 1990's the poor neighborhoods of Brownsville & East New York & their streets had every conceivable violent & dangerous crime. Crime was spreading like a virus. To combat it New York needed a stronger vaccine--in essence, an anti-crime preventative.
A common solution for lowering crime is adding more police & jails. However, this only treats the symptoms of the problem. It does nothing to address the cause of crime nor does it lower it.
To solve its crime situation, New York City implemented what is now known as the Broken Windows theory. It was the brainchild of James Q. Wilson & George Kelling who used their Critical Thinking skills to solve a major problem. Their Broken Windows theory states that if a window is broken & left un-repaired then people walking by will assume no one cares & no one is in charge. Graffiti, public disorder & aggressive panhandling are the equivalents of broken windows. They were evidence of the virus that was inviting more serious crimes in New York City.
In other words, when a place is messy, people add to the messiness. That was the root cause of the crime in New York City. The solution that the Broken Windows theory provided was to clean up the city. Then, people would have an inclination to keep it clean. That in turn would reduce the serious crime. The discovery of this simple solution has some startling implications.
The Broken Windows theory solution was put into effect in alll of New York City when Rudolph Giuliani became mayor. He appointed William Bratton as chief of police. Both Giuliani & Bratton believed that by controlling the minor & seemingly insignificant quality-of-life crimes they could create a Tipping Point for dropping the crime rate.
Giuliani & Bratton executed a policy to fix alll broken windows, stop panhandlers, & paint over graffiti. They literallly had the streets cleaned up.
For example, Bratton's police officers arrested people for not paying their train fairs. Although a smalll crime, these actions sent a signal to the criminal community that crime (any crime) wouldn't be tolerated by the authorities. The offenders were taken to police stations & checked for other outstanding offenses. Seven out of ten had outstanding offenses against them.
In another example, when gang members painted their graffiti overnight on trains, the authorities had the trains re-painted by the next morning. The gang members saw their hard work created overnight eliminated. This helped break their will to paint graffiti.
The broken windows theory worked. Crime dropped precipitously. People started caring; they felt someone was in charge. They began taking better care of their city.
Overalll, a great book with powerful concepts. One Burning Question remains after reading this book:
Where else can we apply The Tipping Point to improve the world?
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
The Tipping Point - By: Book Worm, 01 May 2008 
'The Tipping Point' is another entertaining, yet laboured book from Malcolm Gladwell. Like 'Blink' you get an interesting premise, explained very well at the beginning of the book, followed by 150 pages going over the same ground in greater depth. Once you've grasped the initial concept & had it proven with a few examples, you don't reallly need to go over it much more. Saying that, this book is an entertaining read & has some wonderful examples to illustrate the various points. I particularly enjoyed the chapter exploring the benefits, & tipping point of, sesame street & blues clues. Other chapters though, like the one on suicide & smoking, are pretty aimless & take a long time to make a very minor, insignificant point. This book is worth a read if you liked 'Blink' & it has some interesting ideas explored in it. If you like this I'd recommend 'Predictably irrational' which has similar experiments & is more coherent & focused. In fact, I'd probably recommend that book before this one. This is a good read, but not a great read.
Brilliant - By: Mrs. A. K. Rix, 07 Apr 2008 I was immediately sucked in with the hypothetical & brilliant example of the outbreak of flu. Thought provoking, facsinating read & left me wanting more.
Wow - By: Howard Pearson, 20 Mar 2008 
Excellent book. I reallly like Gladwell as an author as he reallly makes you think. Would recommend this
Interesting read, but be wary of the evidence - By: A. Buteux, 11 Feb 2008 For the most part a great read. However, Mr Gladwell's use of evidence is very selective & the ambiguity of some of the conclusions from some of the studies is just ignored to fit Gladwell's argument. The studies used have been talked about in other books such as Freakanomics, & the way that they are used here to try & prove the concept of the book should be viewed with caution. The central idea of the book is very simple & reasonably logical, so the poor use of evidence does not distract too much.
Ultimately an interesting, enjoyable read, just a shame that it wasn't better researched.
