The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

"When a Snowball becomes an Avalanche" 

According to the author of The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, disturbances happen all the time and spread like viruses.  After these disturbances reach a certain tipping point, the occurrences become a trend. For example, someone comes in sick to your office due to a virus. According to Gladwell's perspective, chances are that more and more people will become sick in the office. Each person who has been affected by the virus got it from someone else in your office. This effect continues and it becomes a "social epidemic."

In a way, this perspective is how ideas, products and behaviors evolve. The tipping point is when people stop saying "this is cool" and start thinking "everyone has it, so I've got to have it!" Just like a virus, an idea spread quickly from person to person.

Gladwell says that epidemics happen because of the opinions of some people not because of unbiased criticisms. This is also called the 80/20 principle or the Pareto principle.What this principle says is that 20% of people will do 80% the job. These 20% of people belong in one of these categories: connectors, salesmen or maven.

Connectors are in the first group of epidemic-makers and the most exclusive. These are the people at the top of the social pyramid. If you need to find specific person, this type of epidemic-maker can help you find what you're looking for. They are the people that can link you to anyone you need. They are those that can connect you with a range of people; whether that is a celebrity, a regular person or a scholar.

The mavens are the second group of epidemic-makers. These types of people are experts in some fields. They are either know a good amount about different topics or know almost everything about one specific topic. The audience really listens to these types of people. You can considered them the "word-of-mouth" around a community. 

The third and final group are the salesmen. These people lose no influence, even they try to sell you the stupidest thing. Their charm and the way they sell their products and services catches the audience's eye. They are considered the persuaders. 

When a tread becomes an "epidemic"and it starts to spread everywhere to the point where the creator loses control of it, the trend is going through it's tipping point.  This tipping point determines that trends almost never depend on the objective of the thing which it trends. This trend just needs to reach a large number of people using the object. A trend begins because of the people that endorse it, not because of the product itself. 

Gladwell describes what I spoke about above as "The Rule of Few." Another idea that Gladwell talks about is "The Stickiness Factor." This describes those things that just stick to your head which no explanation... and can't get out of your head. 

This book analyzed how ideas spread to a mass group of people. Changes in the environment can really affect how these ideas end up spreading. The turning point in the spreading of this idea is when that special moment when nothing can prevent augmentation of this idea. The tipping point is the moment that brings growth to the idea. For example, when new technologies are created, their growth tends to follow this pattern.  

One other key idea I got from this book was the power of content and it is important for an epidemic. People change their attitudes depending on the context in which they are in, in that specific moment. Small groups have the power to create and increase the epidemics at high speeds. With this idea, Malcolm sited the Dunbar rule. This states the maximum people with whom we can have a real social relationship is 150. When a group surpasses this number, changes are social cohesion weakens. 

To conclude, the few social endorses,  the idea that they're trying to get out there and the power of content are the key factors to making ideas go viral.