Amiram Hayardeny's My China Experience

Observations - "The Tipping Point"

Finally, a few years late, I am reading "The Tipping Point" (http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html).  Even before finishing the book, I can already tell that it's the best I have read in this genre since "Freakonomics (Freakonomics).  I haven't even finished reading the book, yet I already have a few observations.  More will come, I am sure of it.  First and foremost, starting at about page two of the book, I realized that I keep thinking about a person who played a very significant role in my life.  Every sentence, every idea presented in the book, made me think of him even more.  At a certain point I realized: this person must have read this book too.  I will explain later.

The book, starts with trying to explain "social epidemics".  How do things spread like brushfires to be extremely successful.  He uses two examples throughout the first chapter (and a few more, but these two are weaved into every idea the book presents).  The two examples are the Hush Puppies shoes, and the message Paul Revere delivered to certain parts in Massachusetts in 1775.  Hush Puppies brand of shoes was on the verge of collapse.  But a few people from Greenwich Village in New York who started wearing them, made them a huge success in the following years.  Paul Revere, according to the book, was so successful in delivering his warning to the colonists in New England, that the author offers, not in as many words, that the US won its independence due to his special skills.  In short, the author introduces types of people who take a critical role in the creation and the success of a social epidemic: the Connectors, the Mavens, and the Salesmen.  For a social epidemic to succeed, it has to come from a Maven - a person whose opinion is accepted with few or no questions, pass through one Connector or more - a person who simply knows plenty of people, and serves as a "social glue", and one or more salesmen - a person who has a gift for selling stuff.  There's more - the message has to stick, but that goes beyond my point here...

I am sure that when this book was written, the author did not plan for it to be a best seller.  After all, Malcolm Gladwell did not write a whole lot of other best sellers, or even books for that matter.  So what made it a best seller?  I have a strange feeling that the way a book becomes a best seller, is exactly like other phenomena described in "The Tipping Point".  It becomes a social epidemic, a word of mouth started by a Maven, spread by connectors, and "sold" by salesmen.  Needless to say, the contents must be good for it to "stick".  And it is.  It's a pleasure to read, it colors life in new vivid colors.  It tags people with an interesting tag.  I have realized, reading this book, that I know quite a few Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen.  I also have had some reflections on myself.

But as I said before, I gained an insight about one particular person, whose name I shall not surrender.  Although, people who know me, and my whereabouts in the last decade, will easily make the connection and hence know his identity.  What if I told you that this person has read the Tipping Point, and liked the characters, or the character types it introduced.  What if I told you that he made a list (mental or actual) of characteristics owned by these characters, and tried to gain them, and more importantly - display them.  In retrospect, it was so pathetically obvious, it is almost sad.  A person who is not naturally likable, does not generate a whole lot of original thought, and has significant difficulties in presenting ideas, suddenly tries to pass as a Connector, a Maven and a Salesman - all at the same time.  Now, that I am in the process of reading the book, I can clearly see it.  If I had seen this person again, I would say to him that he had great many other traits, there is no need to try and pass for what he isn't.

Reading this book, I had another realization.  When I was younger I knew a person who really did not like to read.  In fact, he hated to.  (Don't start guessing here that this is an autobiography, it isn't.  I used to be, and still am a book worm).  One time he had to read a book.  It was a big book, which had a lot of history weaved into a romantic novel.  The name of the book was Exodus, by Leon Uris (Exodus).  But to my great surprise, when I asked this guy a question or two about the book, I have immediately realized that he didn't read the book, he learned it.  He memorized it.  He knew the time line, the historic events.  There could not have been any joy in reading a novel for the purpose of learning it.  During the course of my life and career, I have met many people who read books not because they like reading, or they like the books.  They read because they have to.  They read because it is the right thing to do.  They read, because they live with the wrong perception of what a Maven is.  They associate with people, they tell jokes, not because they like people, or drinking, or jokes.  They do it because they have the wrong perception of what a Connector is.  They try to come up with ideas, which are not original nor interesting, and sell them to others, having the completely wrong notion of what a Salesman is.  The problem is simple.  People don't like to take advice from others pretending to be Mavens.  They don't like to hang out and tell jokes and drink with people who are obviously doing it because there's a hidden benefit in it.  People will not buy something from an artificial, self proclaimed Salesman.

In our social structures, the senses that people have are amazing.  Give them two minutes, and they will be able to make you out for what you really are.  I seriously doubt if it can be staged at all, and if, after all, it can be staged - it has to be done by people who chose acting as their life career.  The book is fascinating, read it.  And don't take it from me because I am not a Maven, nor a Connector, or a Salesman.  Take it from me because I love reading it, and so will you.

Posted at 09:01AM May 25, 2007 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[2]