Review of The Tipping point

The tipping point, by Malcolm Gladwell. A really-really interesting book. Tries to present the reasons about simple-simple phenomenon that take form of an epidemic. Though the word "epidemic" infers a negative sentiment, but here it has been used for something that gets widespread and that too rapidly, beyond a superficial comprehension. I particularly liked the book. In the following paragraphs, there is a plain gist of the book coupled with my my personal opinion.
The first chapter was really interesting, a commendable introduction which quickly grabs your interest. There are certain phenomenon and theory which the author has presented through out the book, such as "The  Bystander problem"- When people are in group, the responsibility of acting is diffused. Why you rush to save someone when you are the only one in the vicinity of a mishap and why people take time to act over a road accident.
Then there is "The power of context"- Human beings are much more sensitive to their environment then actually they may seem. A good concept, well explained must say.
Then the primordial context of the book, how do events actually "tip" ?
The three rules of tip- the law of few, the stickiness factor and the power of context.
Then the people who actually made any episode TIP, The Connectors, the mavens and the salesmen.
Understanding the connectors. Connectors are gregarious and have a brilliant knack of making friends. Connectors are important not only from the point of view of the number of friends they have , but also from the perspective of the kind of friends these people have. Their personality is a potpourri of curiosity, confidence, gregariousness and of course energy. These people are really really versatile species.
Acquaintances are a better source of social power than your close friends. Particularly, in the context of looking for jobs, these weak links in your life, that is acquaintances are more important and useful than your strong or close links. A very well explained theory substantiated with pure and amazing common sense.
To make any idea an epidemic, they must be known by the connectors. These are the people who actually make 'word of mouth',  perhaps the best of publicity.
Now, the next kind of people who in reality inherently control the quality of the word of mouth. They are the MAVENS. Mavens are not persuaders, they are rather information brokers, trading and sharing information with people.Now summarizing another interesting concept-
When people interact with each other, then they get into some kind of aural as well as physical synchronization. Apart from that there is another phenomena that takes place when people interact and that is called motor mimicking, it is an emotional contagion. Emotions and feelings can be transferred from one person to the other, its "outside in". But, the important point is who would make the transfer depends on who is more expressive and charismatic. This is the phenomena by which certain people are able to enchant others while having a conversation with them. With the combination of voice tone, gestures and charisma they inherently intrigue other people. Makes sense.
Now again, For an event or a message to take the form of an epidemic, the messenger indeed is very important. But no way the quality of the message can be neglected. And This specific quality that makes the message successful is called the "stickiness" factor. So, in essence one can make a message or information epidemic simply by the changing the form in which it is presented. Ideas must be memorable and incite us to take action. I particularly found this part of the book a bit over stretched. The examples of Sesame street and blues clues were tad elongated. Among the three examples presented in this chapter I found the golden box one most clear cut and precise. But as I said, its a personal opinion.
The next two chapters deal in the power of context. The first chapter particularly was pretty interesting. One of the examples presented in this chapter is of New York's crime rate which rapidly plunged in the 1990s.
Must say, Very well described, views make sense and are indeed lucid. Broadly, the crux is that the milieu or the environment play a very important role in governing the manner in which people would behave, and by making simple changes in only the surroundings this behavior can actually be controlled. A phenomena covered under this chapter is the Broken window syndrome, which basically explains how minutely considered irregularities promote or incite felonies.
The chapter also elaborated upon the theory of the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE), a theory about which I studied in my organizational behavior curriculum.
The next chapter, the power of 150, an interesting title. This chapter presents cases explaining how epidemics are created through groups. It cites the example of the book the divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood by Rebecca Wells, which ended out selling over 2.5 million copies, an epidemic indeed.
Apart from the content of the book and flair with which it has been written, Malcolm attributes the success to gregarious nature of the author. How she commuted the whole country, reading among various sororities, encouraging discussions among the readers. And how these groups in turn spread the book through out, acting as a brilliant source of "word of mouth" publicity, attracting other people and groups to read it.
It further propounds the concepts of innovators, early adopters, following majority. Malcolm has mapped these concepts with the risk taking abilities of enterprises as well as individuals.
"Attitude of early adopters and attitude of early majority are fundamentally different. Most products fail to attract beyond the early adopters because the idea that makes perfect sense to the first group does not appeal the latter."
The next chapter was a really interesting one. It presented various cases. The best case among the presented  is Airwalk case. It covers multiple topics from new product development, to advertising, to distribution, strategy, research, out of box thinking et al. It also tells about the uber importance of realization for a company about its core competency. One of the fundamental ideas this chapter has presented is that an idea/concept/innovation is introduced by few, the innovators, who can neither be mavens nor connectors nor the salesmen. But to make this message or concept or innovation tip the latter play a very crucial role. What the mavens which apparently trigger an epidemic would do is that they would notice/discern the innovators, then they modify their idea by eliminating the extraneous ones and exaggerating certain other components which would ultimately transform the message into something which is profound enough to take the form of an epidemic. Then the usual business of making an idea tip goes on through mavens to connectors or salesmen. Good stuff.
The following chapter also presents cases. These cases are somewhat different though. They cover and analyse two of the most baneful epidemics in the human society. The first being the suicidal cases, how one suicide creates a conflagration, enticing others to imitate this heinous act. The author has presented the case of Micronesia, where suicide has taken a disgusting casual form. Youngsters commit suicides on such petty and trifle incidents that giving explanation gets beyond the scope of an ordinary individual. The facts revealed are astonishing and open a new outlook towards suicide instances.
"Suicides lead to suicides. It is not a gesture. It is a speech."
The other is an illustration of the smoking epidemic among the teenagers. Malcolm has explained smoking moving further the concept of his "mavens, connectors and salesmen" trilogy along with the "stickiness factor". He has divided the act of smoking into the contagiousness and stickiness.
"Stickiness is property of message. Contagiousness is a function of message. "
Interesting arguments, one of the examples being,"Smoking is not cool , the smokers are cool."
Finally, he has concluded the book with another illustration and a spattering of all the concepts he has propounded.
A really good read. Leaves you with a thought to look at things differently.
"A push at the right place and the world can be tipped"