42 pages • 1 hour read
Malcolm GladwellThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell is an English-Canadian New York Times bestselling author, podcaster, public speaker, and journalist. He has written seven full-length books, including The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, hosts the Revisionist History podcast, and owns the podcasting company Pushkin Industries with cofounder Jacob Weisberg, the son of Connector Lois Weisberg. Gladwell is one of the most influential voices in popular sociology and psychology. He was named to the TIME 100 list of the most influential people in 2005, received the American Sociological Association's Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues in 2007, and became a member of the Order of Canada in 2011.
Gladwell was born in Hampshire, England, and moved to Ontario, Canada, with his family when he was six. He received a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Toronto in 1984 and moved to Indiana to work for The American Spectator. Gladwell began writing for The Washington Post before moving to The New Yorker in 1996. He published The Tipping Point in 2000, which discusses the often misunderstood spread of social epidemics and became the first in a series of bestsellers established him as a social commentator.
Gladwell received much praise for his work throughout the 2000s, but he was also criticized by peers for oversimplifying complex phenomena, such as his overreliance on the broken windows theory in The Tipping Point to explain the spread of urban crime. He was also accused of underpinning his arguments with too much anecdotal evidence in Outliers. Gladwell has sparked endless conversation in the broader public sphere and within academic circles for over two decades. His work is interdisciplinary in nature.
Lois Weisberg
Lois Weisberg was the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs in Chicago, and Gladwell identifies her as a classic example of a Connector, or somebody who has “a special gift for bringing the world together” (38). Throughout her life, Weisberg was involved in multiple social spheres, from the drama world to the political world, and hosted salons on Friday nights in the 1950s that brought people from diverse backgrounds together. Connectors like Weisberg are endlessly fascinated by strangers and love building an army of acquaintances. With so many connections, they become responsible for mixing worlds and making introductions that might otherwise never happen. For example, Gladwell shares that Weisberg introduced two key figures in science fiction, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, at one of her famous get-togethers. She drove numerous public arts projects in Chicago, including Cows on Parade in 1999, an installation of 300 life-sized fiberglass cows on the city's streets. She also initiated educational programs in the arts and numerous free concerts and performances throughout her career.
Mark Alpert
Gladwell introduces Mark Alpert as a quintessential Maven, somebody who has insider information about something—like where to find all the hot deals—and who wants everyone else to know about the deal, too. Originally from Minnesota, Alpert is Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas School of Business. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Southern California in marketing. Alpert is “exacting and thorough and knowledgeable about the ways of the marketplace” (64). Gladwell discusses Alpert’s mastery of marketplace subjects as diverse as which car to buy and which one to avoid and why cable TV beats satellite. Crucial to Alpert's role as a Maven, he never comes off as an “obnoxious know-it-all” (65); rather, he is perceived as a genuine helper who only wants to see others make the right marketplace decisions. As a Maven, he derives happiness from helping others by sharing the expertise he developed through a lifetime of research in marketing.
Tom Gau
Gladwell identifies Tom Gau, a financial planner from Southern California who has launched businesses in multiple states, as one of the great Salesmen of the world, somebody “with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing” (70). Gladwell presents him as charismatic, “mesmerizing” (70), optimistic, and utterly persuasive when he speaks. Gau genuinely loves his clients and derives pleasure from helping them, but his real expertise lies in having a perfect answer or rebuttal for every concern a client might have about a potential product or service that he is offering. Gau’s quintessential Salesman personality can be summed up in his own words: “Gosh darn it […] if you don’t try, you’ll never succeed” (74). He was repeatedly identified by Barron's as one of the top 100 financial advisors in the US.
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