![]() ![]() ![]() Little causes can have big effects- we know through systems thinking that what goes into any transaction, relationship, or system is not necessarily directly related to what comes out.Ideas are contagious-people can infect one another with intellectual “viruses” as well as physical viruses. ![]() What causes health-related as well as productor idea-related epidemics? Gladwell outlines three basic principles that have an impact on this kind of escalation: Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.” By studying patterns of extreme boom or bust, Gladwell believes that we can learn how to more effectively start and control positive “outbreaks” of our own. the rise of teenage smoking, the phenomenon of word of mouth, or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell explores these and many other scenarios in his recent book The Tipping Point (Little, Brown and Company, 2000), in an effort to understand how and why some trends become “epidemics.” He writes, “The best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves. Why did the crime rate in New York City drop so dramatically starting in 1993? How is it that some products-such as Hush Puppies and Airwalk sneakers-suddenly become so popular that retailers find it virtually impossible to keep them in stock? Why is teenage smoking on the rise, even amid massive anti-smoking campaigns? And what do each of these phenomena have in common? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |