Malcolm Gladwell : The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell

In Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, “The power of thinking without thinking” is the central idea that Gladwell conveys through his many anecdotes alongside his scientific evidence. In Blink, though scientific evidence comes into play a lot, most of his evidence can be found daily if we examine ourselves. When the psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson did the “priming” experiment with black college students and the twenty questions taken from the Graduate Record Examination, a test for entry in graduate school, upon making them identify their race just “that simple action was sufficient to prime them with all the negative stereotypes associated with African Americans and academic achievement- and the number of items they got right was cut in half. (Page 56, Chapter 2. ) This can bring us to the notion that if you can be “primed” to be inferior, you can be “primed” to be superior. As Gladwell put it, “If a white student from a prestigious private

If the change in behavior of one individual is a natural act results from internal transformation and external influences, then cultural change is an inscrutable mystery. Which factor is influential enough to cause a change in a society composed of individuals with different thoughts? There is no definite answer to this question, because there never exists one solid element that changes an entire society. There is always a combination of reasons behind such changes. However, there is always one solid factor which is present that makes culture change. In “The Power of Context”, Malcolm Gladwell describes how the crime rate suddenly “went into a precipitous decline” (151) due to changes of “the smallest details of the immediate environment” (155). On the contrary, in her text “An Army of One: Me”, Jean Twenge discusses how society systematically built Generation Me, a cultural change that happens gradually over decades. Although Gladwell and Twenge’s arguments concerning cultural change seems contradictory, they both consolidate one essential factor that makes culture change- an active assertion of change made by an individual or a group of individuals. Therefore, active attempt of change is an important cause of cultural change. Such assertiveness helps to introduce the change in the first place and makes it noticeable in the perspective of society, While it influences people’s mentality when behaving and making decisions.

Throughout The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell explains to his reader his ideas about drastic changes in society, and how they seem to occur so rapidly. In this particular selection, Gladwell emphasizes the purpose of “connectors”, saying that they have a “special gift for bringing the world together (page 38)”. Gladwell states that part of the reason information or trends spread like wildfire is the presence of a specific group of people. They are called “connecters”, and they are people who know, or are connected to, people of “different worlds (page 51)”, and bring them together. In his book, The Tipping Point, Gladwell uses different forms of persuasion, rhetorical questions, and organization to

Criminal case is always tedious when it involves little or no information about the offender, like in the 9/11 terrorist attack which annihilated most of the workers in and damaged the New York Trade Center building. However, in an attempt to identify the offenders, government officials and investigators try out different ways such as criminal profiling and others. Thus, in the New Yorker article, “Dangerous Minds” by Malcolm Gladwell; the author informs the deeper problems with FBI profiling and argues that it is ineffective. He questions the usefulness of criminal profiling, “But how useful is that profile, really?” and uses other criminal cases, group research analyses, and analogies to refute

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury tells the story of a dystopic world where books are burned by firemen because they are prohibited. By presenting this, he makes a point on how books are essential and at the same time warning readers. He was trying to say,” If this happens, then this will happen.” He visualized this society in this book, based on his society, which is parallel to our society now. In the dystopic Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury examines his society at the time, and he admonishes readers about possible aspects of future societies, especially mass media, technological advancement, and peoples’ mental health.

A Brave New World published in 1932 by Aldous Huxley was about a utopian society in which people were placed in castes because of how their embryos were modified. Little did the author know less than a century later the idea of “designer babies” might be a reality. Designer babies are very similar to Huxley’s idea; a person could be genetically altered before they were born. Unlike Huxley’s book, in which embryos were genetically modified due to government industrial control, designer babies’ destinies are determined by parental control. Although, gene alteration can prevent genetic diseases, predetermining genetic outcomes should be illegal because of its negative effects on society; the effect genes have on each other, and the underwhelming success rate.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Small Change: The Revolution will not be Tweeted” There is an example of large-scale change which caused by the social media there was Twitter revolution at Moldova, Iran in 2009. People started to use Twitter as a tool for protest the government and it became a huge change. This could be possible because people could argue with more confident when they stand up against government through the Social Media. The Malcolm Gladwell’s response about this kind of social event was “Social media, the traditional relationship between political authority and popular will has been upended, making I easier for the powerless to collaborate, coordinate, and give voice to their concerns” (Paragraph 7, Gladwell) Also he called

How big is the world? Some might ponder and the answer is, not as big as it seems. The world isn’t a scary, huge and untouchable place, as it is perceived to be. In reality, the universe is just a blank canvas filled with unique and mesmerizing people. That shapes our world into what it has become. The world would never be what it is without the people living on it. In the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell explains the theory of the world and how it seems to be and control everything. Although, it’s the people in the world that make a difference. However people don’t believe they can change and make a difference in the world, but they can. Everyone has the power to change the world and shape their lives and others. Therefore it's up to them to decide if it will be for good or evil. In The Tipping point, Malcolm Gladwell uses the motif of how little things can make a big difference, for example, hush puppies. This motif signifies how the slightest movement in just the right place can change the world completely. We all have the power, but it can just take one to change the world.

I chose this scene because it puts emphasis on the importance of cultural legacy, and how these cultural legacies can either hinder or facilitates us at what we do. These are not innate characteristics. They are legacies of the cultures we are born into, and heavily influence the way we think and behave. Take Klotz for example. His plane is about crash, but he is trapped in his role as a subordinate. His failure to communicate with his captain is not through any fault of his own but of his hierarchical background. He is obligated to be respectful towards his superiors in a way that is not expected of people in America. This scene also helps conveys Gladwell’s idea that we have to go back much further than looking at an example of one person

Expertise is something many people look at as coincidence. They see it as something that merely happens to someone. Malcolm Gladwell, however, studied how one attains this status. He proposed that it takes 10,000 hours of practice put into something to truly become an expert at it. Proficiency at a skill does not come automatically. It takes time and effort to really master anything.

Many parts of our daily life revolve around social sciences and are caused by much more research and in-depth thought than we may originally realize. Innumerable products, ideas, epidemics, and modern thought processes are the product of tipping points. For any idea to gain enough ground to become popular to a large audience, it has to have a very specific environment and the idea must be spread at very certain times in history. There is a very precarious balance to making anything have the ability to be prominent or sought after. Nature, political revolutions, and credibility and popularity are all events and phenomena that have tipping points and relate to The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

Starting in Chapter 6 Gladwell presents us with the mysterious and seemingly inexplicable series of events that occurred in Harlan, Kentucky in the 19th century to introduce the enormous effect of cultural legacies.

Q1. What is the general focus of Part 2? Answer: The general focus of Part 2 is ‘legacy’.

The moment that passes in the blink of an eye can be more important than you think. Malcolm Gladwell the author of the novel Blink(the power of thinking without thinking) tells the true importance of observing even the smallest moments in time. Malcolm is a Canadian journalist who writes of psychology. The power of the human brain and its unknown capabilities fills each and every page of his work. Malcolm’s writing throughout the novel writes about the subject rapid cognition and goes into detail on several different forms of the concept.

Imagine that by taking one magic pill, you could be at the top of your world. With one pill, you could find complete happiness and unmatched physical fulfillment. In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses the drug Soma, to give the characters all of the benefits of fulfillment, both physically and spiritually, yet ironically, as the drug plays out its role, the “fulfillment” leaves its consumer empty.