1. What method did Georgia Sadler find to tip her diabetes/cancer campaign? Would you classify her as a connector, maven, or salesman? She went to women in the beauty parlor. She realized she would be more effective in a place where people went and stayed. They listen to their hairdresser. I think she is a salesman. She sold her message to the hairdressers and they connected to their clients.
2. What is Gladwell’s view of a Band-Aid solution? He thinks it is a good one. Band-aids are cheap but effectual. Why go all out if something simple works?
3. What two lessons does he mention from the Tipping Point? The first lesson is to concentrate your efforts on a few key resources. Don’t try to reach the world-figure out first how to get your message out to a few. The second lesson is that to be effective you cannot rely solely on your intuition-it needs to be tested.
Afterword. Tipping Point Lessons from the Real World
1. How might the AIDS epidemic have been better combated if it had been examined as a social phenomenon? If we had concentrated on the spread of Aids and tried to stop the patterns of behavior instead of just trying to cure it, it might have worked better. Aids was spread during a time of rampant promiscuity and drug usage. Perhaps stopping that using social morals would have worked better.
2. What does Gladwell mean when he writes that “we are about to enter the age of word of mouth” (on page 264)? I think it is a way to cut through all of the technology and information bombarding us from all sides. There is so much info out there it is difficult to make an informed decision-listening to other people will help us make decisions.
3. What does Gladwell mean by the phrase “the Age of Isolation”? We have cut ourselves off from the world of teenagers-they function in their own world together. Epidemics are more likely to happen because they imitate other teens in their own society.
4. What is Gladwell’s take on school shootings like Columbine? He thinks Columbine was an epidemic in isolation. He thinks it was a catalyst for shootings just like the suicide of a prominent teen was the impetus for suicide in Micronesia. The media coverage just aids this type of behavior-the more students see it the more they can copy it. I was recuperating from surgery during the Columbine shootings-that was all that was on TV those days. You could not get away from it.
5. What is the “fax effect”? How does “immunity” negate the “fax effect”? The fax effect is that you are buying more than a fax-you are buying into the entire fax network. The fact that we are now overwhelmed by faxes, email, etc., is making us all immune to that power. When we receive dozens of faxes or emails in a day we tend to tune out those messages. Think about those commercials on tv-we now dvr all of our shows and skip the commercials. That is certainly not the intent of the advertiser.
