Bullet Summary

• A trend becomes a snowball depending on the type of people sharing it, the stickiness of the product, and the overall context
• The people spreading a trend are well-connected, love helping others, or are good at selling
• The overall context or historical period must help the trend spread

Summary

About The Author:

Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist for The New Yorker, a public speaker, and the author of several pop psychology books.

Among his other bestsellers are: Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath.

Introduction

The Tipping Point starts as most captivating stories begin: with an open loop.

Gladwell introduces the seemingly inexplicable rebirth of a brand that seemed on the verge of disappearing: Hush Puppies.

In the 1990s the Hush Puppies shoes went from being popular in the Soho district of NY among the hipsters to spreading to the whole country.

How did that happen?

Gladwell will explain how that happens in the course of the book.

Chapter 1: The Three Rules of Epidemics

Gladwell says that most social trends spread following the same rules.

Whether it’s the spread of a disease like syphilis or the Hush Puppies shoes, they all have a moment the author calls a “tipping point” that unifies many isolated enclaves into a unified trend.

For Gladwell, the factors that make a trend reach the tipping point are three:

1. Law of the Few
2. Stickiness Factor