Who knew it has been 25 years since the publication of Gladwell’s The Tipping Point! This new book, where he revisits key points of Tipping Points and updates examples and brings to life the pressures, forces and mores that make a movement tip, is an excellent read.

The book explores the pivotal moments when ideas, trends, or social behaviors cross a threshold and spread rapidly. Gladwell introduces concepts like the “Law of the Few,” emphasizing that a small number of influential individuals can drive significant social change. He also discusses the “Stickiness Factor,” highlighting the importance of making ideas memorable, and the “Power of Context,” which examines how environmental factors influence behavior.

You would be interested in this book if you are:
(1) curious about the mechanisms behind societal changes, and intrigued by how small actions can lead to significant outcomes
(2) involved in education and looking for a fresh perspective on the dynamics of change.
(3) interested in some of the biggest issues of our times, and how to understand how we got here (eg. the opioid crisis)

The purpose of this book is for Gladwell to show us how the methods of The Tipping Point can be used nefariously, for ill, and for epidemics. His mission is to support using these methods for good, and to warn us how to see these methods at work against the better angles of our nature.

The book is ingenious in a very Malcolm Gladwell style – weaving theory, social science, data into engaging stories that stick. While the book is not organized in how I describe it below, these are some of the key themes that struck me in the reading.

Places:

In this revenge novel, Gladwell looks at the power of place: both real and fictional. When looking at behaviour, he explores the social mores and social systems of Miami and how they can turn an ethical man into something much different. He also looks at Poplar Grove ~ a fictional place name, but you can guess where the real city is! ~ and the pressures and expectations that pile up and result in the tragic suicide cluster of high schoolers; and, he explores the fictional street of Maple Drive, and how there are expectations that are felt in a place and act as pressures, and how the show of which Maple Drive was a part, played a key role in the fight for Gay Marriage. He explores the power of place in a way that makes the reader look up from the pages, or unplug their airpods (as was my case) and ‘look again’ at the invisible structures and systems, at the people of influence, that make up the place. I found this an excellent provocation to explore culture in the places and spaces that I work and play in.

Check out this interview for more discussion on the Book 🙂

Sports & Teams:

Gladwell’s exploration of sports, like Harvard’s Rugby Team, and the Ivy League would be of great interest to educators. In these sections where he explores the role of teams and their influence on the players and on campus life, he brings to light “The Magic Third” – Click that link, watch that video.  It’s fascinating – it is why the Ivy Leagues put so much emphasis on sport! Organizations will go to great lengths to perserve a third/third/third to ensure culture, achievement and belonging. And the great thing about Gladwell’s writing, is that he gets the reader to question to “why?”!

Here is a quick interview where Gladwell addresses Ivy Leagues

Viruses and Super Spreaders:

In the sections where he explores how viruses and in particular, Covid – 19, are spread, he tells the story of Biotech’s Marriot Hotel meeting in early 2020, and he questions that, while many many people got sick, not all of them did. He puts this against the story of a young man coming from Wuhan, China, who clearly had Covid, but it spread nowhere in the city of Boston. Again, he gets the reader to question why, and provides some insightful provocations.

What makes this book really enjoyable is that social science is woven together in tight, digestible stories that stick. But the power is in how the stickiness of the stories provokes the ready to arm themselves with questions. Questions that I hope serve us better when we are raising our children, educating and inspiring our students, and for when the next virus outbreak comes.

For that reason, I can highly recommend that you listen to the book, because, as he did with Talking to Strangers, the production of this book includes voice actors, reading of direct transcripts, and music too.