Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

Veronica lent me The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a sort of non-fiction version of Connie Willis’ Bellwether. Both explain the origin of fads and sheep-like group behavior. Gladwell mentions the Wason selection task, though not by name. He goes on at length about crime and graffiti in NYC, and, less interestingly, about the appeal of children’s programs. The section on the lack of corporate structure at Gore (makers of Gore-Tex) was much too short - I still have no clue how they make decisions.

I’ve found myself skimming at points, perhaps because I find marketing dull but more likely because the argument goes around in circles. I don’t have much hope that the conclusion will draw it all together. Connie Willis is much better at gathering the loose threads.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2003 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Anomaly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.