*** 1. What is The Tipping Point about?

It's a book about change. In particular, it's a book that presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does. For example, why did crime drop so dramatically in New York City in the mid-1990's? How does a novel written by an unknown author end up as national bestseller? Why do teens smoke in greater and greater numbers, when every single person in the country knows that cigarettes kill? Why is word-of-mouth so powerful? What makes TV shows like Sesame Street so good at teaching kids how to read? I think the answer to all those questions is the same. It's that ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an examination of the social epidemics that surround us.

2. What does it mean to think about life as an epidemic? Why does thinking in terms of epidemics change the way we view the world?

Because epidemics behave in a very unusual and counterintuitive way. Think, for a moment, about an epidemic of measles in a kindergarten class. One child brings in the virus. It spreads to every other child in the class in a matter of days. And then, within a week or so, it completely dies out and none of the children will ever get measles again. That's typical behavior for epidemics: they can blow up and then die out really quickly, and even the smallest change -- like one child with a virus -- can get them started. My argument is that it is also the way that change often happens in the rest of the world. Things can happen all at once, and little changes can make a huge difference. That's a little bit counterintuitive. As human beings, we always expect everyday change to happen slowly and steadily, and for there to be some relationship between cause and effect. And when there isn't -- when crime drops dramatically in New York for no apparent reason, or when a movie made on a shoestring budget ends up making hundreds of millions of dollars -- we're surprised. I'm saying, don't be surprised. This is the way social epidemics work.

3. Where did you get the idea for the book?

Before I went to work for The New Yorker, I was a reporter for the Washington Post and I covered the AIDS epidemic. And one of the things that struck me as I learned more and more about HIV was how strange epidemics were. If you talk to the people who study epidemics--epidemiologists--you realize that they have a strikingly different way of looking at the world. They don't share the assumptions the rest of us have about how and why change happens. The word "Tipping Point", for example, comes from the world of epidemiology. It's the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It's the boiling point. It's the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards. AIDS tipped in 1982, when it went from a rare disease affecting a few gay men to a worldwide epidemic. Crime in New York City tipped in the mid 1990's, when the murder rate suddenly plummeted. When I heard that phrase for the first time I remember thinking--wow. What if everything has a Tipping Point? Wouldn't it be cool to try and look for Tipping Points in business, or in social policy, or in advertising or in any number of other nonmedical areas?

4. Why do you think the epidemic example is so relevant for other kinds of change? Is it just that it's an unusual and interesting way to think about the world?

No. I think it's much more than that, because once you start to understand this pattern you start to see it everywhere. I'm convinced that ideas and behaviors and new products move through a population very much like a disease does. This isn't just a metaphor, in other words. I'm talking about a very literal analogy. One of the things I explore in the book is that ideas can be contagious in exactly the same way that a virus is. One chapter, for example, deals with the very strange epidemic of teenage suicide in the South Pacific islands of Micronesia. In the 1970's and 1980's, Micronesia had teen suicide rates ten times higher than anywhere else in the world. Teenagers were literally being infected with the suicide bug, and one after another they were killing themselves in exactly the same way under exactly the same circumstances. We like to use words like contagiousness and infectiousness just to apply to the medical realm. But I assure you that after you read about what happened in Micronesia you'll be convinced that behavior can be transmitted from one person to another as easily as the flu or the measles can. In fact, I don't think you have to go to Micronesia to see this pattern in action. Isn't this the explanation for the current epidemic of teen smoking in this country? And what about the rash of mass shootings we're facing at the moment--from Columbine through the Atlanta stockbroker through the neo-Nazi in Los Angeles?

5. Are you talking about the idea of memes, that has become so popular in academic circles recently?

It's very similar. A meme is a idea that behaves like a virus--that moves through a population, taking hold in each person it infects. I must say, though, that I don't much like that term. The thing that bothers me about the discussion of memes is that no one ever tries to define exactly what they are, and what makes a meme so contagious. I mean, you can put a virus under a microscope and point to all the genes on its surface that are responsible for making it so dangerous. So what happens when you look at an infectious idea under a microscope? I have a chapter where I try to do that. I use the example of children's television shows like Sesame Street and the new Nickelodeon program called Blues Clues. Both those are examples of shows that started learning epidemics in preschoolers, that turned kids onto reading and "infected" them with literacy. We sometimes think of Sesame Street as purely the result of the creative genius of people like Jim Henson and Frank Oz. But the truth is that it is carefully and painstaking engineered, down to the smallest details. There's a wonderful story, in fact, about the particular scientific reason for the creation of Big Bird. It's very funny. But I won't spoil it for you.

6. How would you classify The Tipping Point? Is it a science book?

I like to think of it as an intellectual adventure story. It draws from psychology and sociology and epidemiology, and uses examples from the worlds of business and education and fashion and media. If I had to draw an analogy to another book, I'd say it was like Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, in the sense that it takes theories and ideas from the social sciences and shows how they can have real relevance to our lives. There's a whole section of the book devoted to explaining the phenomenon of word of mouth, for example. I think that word of mouth is something created by three very rare and special psychological types, whom I call Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. I profile three people who I think embody those types, and then I use the example of Paul Revere and his midnight ride to point out the subtle characteristics of this kind of social epidemic. So just in that chapter there is a little bit of sociology, a little of psychology

and a little bit of history, all in aid of explaining a very common but mysterious phenomenon that we deal with every day. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure that this book fits into any one category. That's why I call it an adventure story. I think it will appeal to anyone who wants to understand the world around them in a different way. I think it can give the reader an advantage--a new set of tools. Of course, I also think they'll be in for a very fun ride.

7. What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

One of the things I'd like to do is to show people how to start "positive" epidemics of their own. The virtue of an epidemic, after all, is that just a little input is enough to get it started, and it can spread very, very quickly. That makes it something of obvious and enormous interest to everyone from educators trying to reach students, to businesses trying to spread the word about their product, or for that matter to anyone who's trying to create a change with limited resources. The book has a number of case studies of people who have successfully started epidemics--an advertising agency, for example, and a breast cancer activist. I think they are really fascinating. I also take a pressing social issue, teenage smoking, and break it down and analyze what an epidemic approach to solving that problem would look like. The point is that by the end of the book I think the reader will have a clear idea of what starting an epidemic actually takes. This is not an abstract, academic book. It's very practical. And it's very hopeful. It's brain software.

Beyond that, I think that The Tipping Point is a way of making sense of the world, because I'm not sure that the world always makes as much sense to us as we would hope. I spent a great deal of time in the book talking about the way our minds work--and the peculiar and sometimes problematic ways in which our brains process information. Our intuitions, as humans, aren't always very good. Changes that happen really suddenly, on the strength of the most minor of input, can be deeply confusing. People who understand The Tipping Point, I think, have a way of decoding the world around them.

*** Introduction

Gladwell begins by discussing the inexplicable resurgence of then-terminally-uncool Hush Puppies shoes among a handful of hipsters in Manhattan’s cutting-edge enclaves in the 1990s, a trend which soon spread across the United States and resulted in exponential increases in the company’s sales. Using this phenomenon as an introduction to the book’s analytical theme, the author states that he will identify, dissect and explain the mechanisms by which certain trends take hold, while others fail.

Chapter 1: The Three Rules of Epidemics

Gladwell asserts that most trends, styles, and phenomena are born and spread according to routes of transmission and conveyance that are strikingly similar. In most of these scenarios, whether the event in question is the spread of syphilis in Baltimore’s mean streets or the sudden spike in the popularity of Hush Puppies sales, there is a crucial juncture, which Gladwell terms the “tipping point,” that signals a key moment of

crystallization that unifies isolated events into a significant trend. What factors decide whether a particular trend or pattern will take hold? Gladwell introduces three variables that determine whether and when the tipping point will be achieved.

The three “rules of epidemics” that Gladwell identifies are: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. He concludes the chapter with a preliminary discussion of the Law of the Few, noting that the origins of most major epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases can be traced back to the disproportionate influence of a few “super infectors” who are personally responsible for dozens, or in some cases, hundreds of transmissions. This role is analogous to the category of people that Gladwell identifies as “Connectors,” who play an inordinate role in helping new trends begin to “tip,” or spread rapidly.

Chapter 2: The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen

The attainment of the tipping point that transforms a phenomenon into an influential trend usually requires the intervention of a number of influential types of people. In the disease epidemic model Gladwell introduced in Chapter 1, he demonstrated that many outbreaks could be traced back to a small group of infectors. Likewise, on the path toward the tipping point, many trends are ushered into popularity by small groups of individuals that can be classified as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.

Connectors are individuals who have ties in many different realms and act as conduits between them, helping to engender connections, relationships, and “cross-fertilization” that otherwise might not have ever occurred. Mavens are people who have a strong compulsion to help other consumers by helping them make informed decisions. Salesmen are people whose unusual charisma allows them to be extremely persuasive in inducing others’ buying decisions and behaviors. Gladwell identifies a number of examples of past trends and events that hinged on the influence and involvement of Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen at key moments in their development.

Chapter 3: The Stickiness Factor: Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues, and the Educational Virus

Another crucial factor that plays a key role in determining whether a trend will attain exponential popularity is what Gladwell terms “the stickiness factor.” This refers to a unique quality that compels the phenomenon to “stick” in the minds of the public and influence their future behavior.

An interesting element of stickiness, as defined by Gladwell, is the fact that it is often counterintuitive, or contradictory to the prevailing conventional wisdom. To illustrate this point, Gladwell undertakes an in-depth discussion of the evolution of children’s television between the 1960s and the 2000s.

The PBS show Sesame Street represented a vast improvement in the “stickiness” of children’s television, in large part because it turned many of the long-established assumptions about children’s cognitive abilities and television-watching behaviors on

their heads. These changes, based in large part on extensive research, resulted in a show that actually helped toddlers and preschoolers develop literacy.

Years later, the television show Blue’s Clues applied many of these same techniques to Sesame Street itself, resulting in the development of a program that research has shown can generate significant improvements in children’s logic and reasoning abilities. The attribute of stickiness, Gladwell argues, often represents a dramatic divergence from the conventional wisdom of the era.

Chapter 4: The Power of Context (Part One): Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York

City Crime

Another crucial aspect of the complex processes and mechanisms that cause trends to “tip” into mass popularity is what Gladwell terms the Power of Context. If the environment or historical moment in which a trend is introduced is not right, it is not as likely that the tipping point will be attained. To illustrate the power of context, Gladwell takes on the strangely rapid decline in violent crime rates that occurred in the 1990s in New York City.

Although Gladwell acknowledges that a wide variety of complex factors and variables likely played a role in sparking the decline, he argues convincingly that it was a few small but influential changes in the environment of the city that allowed these factors to tip into a major reduction in crime. He cites the fact that a number of New York City agencies began to make decisions based on the Broken Windows theory, which held that minor, unchecked signs of deterioration in a neighborhood or community could, over time, result in major declines in the quality of living.

To reverse these trends, city authorities started focusing on seemingly small goals like painting over graffiti, cracking down on subway toll skippers, and dissuading public acts of degeneracy. Gladwell contends that these changes in the environment allowed the other factors, like the decline in crack cocaine use and the aging of the population, to gradually tip into a major decline in the crime rate in the city.

Chapter 5: The Power of Context (Part Two): The Magic Number One Hundred and Fifty

Clearly, in order for a trend to tip into massive popularity, large numbers of people need to embrace it. However, Gladwell points out that groups of certain sizes and certain types can often be uniquely conducive to achieving the tipping point. He traces the path of the novel The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood from regional cult favorite to national best-seller. Gladwell notes that the unique content of the novel appealed strongly to reading groups of middle-aged women in Northern California, and that these women were uniquely well-positioned to catapult the book to national success as a result of an informal campaign of recommendations and advocacy.

Gladwell also remarks upon the unusual properties tied to the size of social groups. Groups of less than 150 members usually display a level of intimacy, interdependency, and efficiency that begins to dissipate markedly as soon as the group’s size increases over 150. This concept has been exploited by a number of corporations that use it as the foundation of their organizational structures and marketing campaigns.

Chapter 6: Case Study: Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation

In this case study-oriented chapter, Gladwell discusses the rise and decline of Airwalk shoes. The brand was originally geared towards the skateboarding subculture of Southern California, but sought to transcend this niche market and attain national name recognition. They succeeded in this endeavor with the help of an advertising agency with a unique understanding of the factors and variables that influence the public’s perception of "coolness." The marketing campaign ruthlessly honed in on and exploited several timely avatars of coolness, such as Tibetan Buddhism, pachuco gang culture, and hipsters’ ironic embrace of preppy culture, rendering Airwalk shoes cool by association in the process.

The company’s unique strategy of offering unique products to boutique stores and a more mainstream shoe selection to department stores had long kept both cutting-edge hipsters and their more mainstream, impressionable counterparts content. However, as a cost-cutting measure, Airwalk eventually began providing all of its distributors with a single line of shoes. The delicate balance that had long rendered the company’s products cool in the minds of the public was disturbed, and sales declined significantly.

Chapter 7: Case Study: Suicide, Smoking, and the Search for the Unsticky Cigarette

In another case study, Gladwell discusses the relationship between a sudden, alarming rise in suicide among adolescent males in Micronesia and the persistent problem of teen cigarette use in the United States. In both instances, teens were induced to become involved in potentially lethal experimentation. Gladwell asserts that both trends were predicated upon two main factors. First, teenagers are inherently, perhaps even genetically predisposed to imitate others and try on new behaviors and attitudes during adolescence. Second, the types of the people who are more likely to engage in dramatic, easily romanticized behavior such as early cigarette smoking or suicide are also more likely to be those that others tend to gravitate toward and seek to emulate.

Gladwell also considers the origins and implications of the curiously large middle ground that exists between those who abstain altogether from potentially dangerous activities, and those who engage in them in a consistently low-level manner. In terms of cigarette use, these “chippers” typically never smoke enough to tip into full-blown addiction, and thus escape most of the ill effects of long-term tobacco use. Gladwell suggests that infrequent teenage experimentation with drugs or smoking should not be regarded with hysteria, but rather, should be accepted as inevitable and is, in all likelihood, benign.

Chapter 8: Conclusion: Focus, Test, Believe

In this chapter, Gladwell concludes with an account of the type of solution that reflects an understanding of the concept of the tipping point: A nurse seeking an effective, low-cost way to raise breast cancer awareness among African-American women shunned traditional routes and enlisted the help of hairstylists. In this environment, she reasoned, most people are relaxed and receptive to new information in a way that most education efforts can’t duplicate. Gladwell acknowledges that this type of thinking is often derided as being a “band-aid” solution that treats symptoms, rather than underlying problems. However, he asserts that these solutions are often the very type of cumulative, low-key approach that can, over time, build to a tipping point of massive popularity and influence.

Afterword

In the newly-penned afterword to The Tipping Point, Gladwell updates a number of the case studies and anecdotes offered in the original text with new data. He also reconsiders the role of the Internet and Internet-related technologies, such as e-mail, and their impact upon the spread of trends and influence. However, he cautions that the overuse and sheer ubiquity of these formats can make the recipients "immune" to their effects.

*** The Tipping Point” es un best seller norteamericano del New York Times que recientemente ha sido traducido al español abyecto el ridiculo titulo de “La clave del exito”. Su mejor traduccion hubiese sido “El Punto Clave” o “El Punto de Inflexion”.En esta obra revolucionaria, que sigue ocupando los primeros puestos en las listas de ventas de Estados Unidos, Gladwell analiza la trayectoria de varios productos y raciocinios de gran exito hasta descubrir como y por que se alcanza el punto de inflexion a parejotir del cual algo se convierte en un fenomeno de masas.Gladwell nos presenta a personas responsables de imprimir nuevas ideas y raciocinios -los creadores naturales del boca a oreja- y examina la moda, los programas infantiles de television, la conducta de los fumadores y hasta la publicidad directa, con el término de diluci recular el resumen del contagio de ideas.«La mejor manera de comprender abarcar abarcar los cambios misteriosos que jalonan nuestra valor cotidiana (ya sea la a parejoicion de una raciocinio en la moda, el retirada de las oleadas de crimenes, la transformacion de un libro ignorado en un exito de ventas, el desarrollo del consumo de tabaco entre los adolescentes, o el fenomeno del boca a oreja) es tratarlos como purascontagios. Las ideas, los productos, los mensajes y las conductas se extienden entre nosotros parejo que los virus.»Ese momento magico en que una idea, una raciocinio o un comportamiento social deja de entelequia una chispa parejoa convertirse en una llamarada que se expande, cual fuego en herramienta del bosque. Ese punto de inflexion en que un producto deja de entelequialo parejoa convertirse en una “epidemia social”, parejoa usar la metafora de Malcolm Gladwell.“Una de las razones que me responsabilidad a escribir ‘The Tipping Point’”, testimonia el ahora vitoreado autor, “fue el misterio del boca a boca, un fenomeno sobre cuya repercusión todo el mundo parejoece permanecer de acuerdo, pero nadie sabe como precisar. Es acerca de ese materia sobre el cual los lectores mas me han hablado y sobre

el cual yo tambien he pensado mas”. Como final de estas reflexiones, Gladwell concluye en que el acceso ilimitado a la informacion, a traves de la tecnologia, parejoadojicamente nos esta empujando a confiar cada vez mas en maneras de contactos sociales muy primitivos, como manera de lidiar con la complejidad del mundo moderno, que incrementa el aislamiento, especialmente de los adolescentes, y la “inmunidad” ante la comunicacion de masas.ContenidoEn su afan por precisar el boca a boca, Gladwell desentraña patrones de inmenso sobreprecio parejoa gerenciar un fenomeno, que por su naturaleza espontanea es dificil de administrar.Luego de estudiar episodios de “epidemias sociales”, en los campos de la historia, la politica, el mercadeo y la conducta social, desde la autonomía de Estados Unidos hasta el cubo Rubik, los Hush Puppies, el tabaquismo, la criminalidad o Plaza Sesamo, Gladwell identifica tres leyes que, a su ver, se repiten en estos fenomenos de masas. Las denomina Ley de los pocos, Ley de la pegajosidad (The stickiness factor) y Ley del contexto.LEY DE LOS POCOS.La Ley de los pocos establece que solo cierta gente, con condiciones especiales, hace posible el contagio social. Los primeros “pocos” son los conectores , aquellos que tienen una capacidad inusual, extraordinaria, excéntrico parejoa hacer amigos entre clans muy diversos, y una parejoticular facilidad parejoa conectarlos. Ellos solos, individualmente, llegan a un monton de gente. En este clan encaja Luis Molina, el de Patin Bigote. Luis es de esas personas que pueden llegar a un coctel sin comprender abarcar a nadie, y solo con cruzar la puerta ya habra encontrado con quien expresar y de quien hacerse amigo. Gente “ poderoso” y anonima. Luis es “transfronterizo”, entabla relaciones lo mismo con artistas y bohemios que con periodistas, ejecutivos, pobres, ricos, tecnicos, obreros y profesionales, tejiendo una red social amplisima, y vinculando entre si a quienes maneran jirón de ella. Les da seguimiento, arma bases de datos de sus relacionados y las comjirón, difunde mensajes por multiples canales y organiza deteccións atipicos donde concilio a mansos y cimarrones.Los conectores son cruciales parejoa lograr el tipping point, ya que la ideal del boca a boca no consiste en que una persona comunique una informacion a otra, estima Gladwell, destino en que el mensaje llegue a un conector. El solo bastara parejoa llevarlo a varios clans.Otros, “pocos, pero significativos”, son los mavens, descritos como recolectores apasionados de informacion sobre productos, probadores de nuevas experiencias de consumo y difusores militantes de sus opiniones y recomendaciones. Constituyen “controles de calidad en el mercado”. Es el caso de mi amigo Alberto Lora, un newyorkino subscriptor de Consumers Report y de numerosas publicaciones especializadas en tecnologia, nutricion, salud, entrenamiento fisico, convite personal, literatura, docencia, musica y cine. Ob entelequiavador agudo de modas y raciocinios, Alberto puede llevar a sus amigos a agotar una dicha en un paseo por downtown, y, a la vez, ahorrarles otra, porque sabe donde poseer lo mejor al mejor precio. Ninguno de sus relacionados compra casi nada sin consultarle. La opinion de pocas personas, como el, puede hacer deformar la cotizacion bursatil de una empresa. Finalmente, estan los vendedores . Esos que si hablan, convencen. Si se les deja perforar la boca, pueden vender hasta piedras. Tienen encanto personal, facilidad de palabra y mental. Son capaces de recular respuestas a todas las objeciones.LEY DE LA PEGAJOSIDADConsiste en la creacion de un mensaje de alto impacto, memorable y contagioso. Que se

“pega”. Para lograrlo, la manera es tan poderoso como el contenido.LEY DEL CONTEXTOEl entorno y el clan pueden ejercer en las personas mucho mas de lo que pudieramos imaginar. Contrario a lo que podriamos pensar, parejoa la creacion de una “epidemia social” no conviene llegar a grandes clans de un golpe, destino crear pequeños movimientos de no mas de 150 personas, ya que cuando pasan de este numero, segun estudios antropologicos, la aptitud de valimiento se diluye. Los pequeños movimientos van creando olas, hasta provocar el magico punto de inflexion o tipping point.CORRER LA VOZSi extrapolamos los planteamientos de “The Tipping Point” al mundo del mercadeo, “la clave del exito” (espantoso titulo) consistiria en identificar los conectores, mavens y vendedores, (mejor si son tres en uno), y lograr que el mensaje los toque.La creacion de significantes con enganche motorizan el posicionamiento, como googlear se ha convertido en destinonimo de busqueda en Internet, reforzando el posicionamiento de Google como el buscador mas usado. Faltaria seleccionar, o crear los contextos idoneos, propiciando el detección de pequeños clans provistos de multiples canales, parejoa crear olas que impulsen el mensaje, hasta poseer el deseado tipping point o punto de inflexion.