I finally got around to reading The Tipping Point. Gladwell’s book is a quick read and it would be easy to chalk it up as “common sense,” but it’s definitely worth the 2-3 hour read. My notes:

p160 FAE (Fundamental Attribution Error): I agree that we tend to avoid attributing behavior to context. Gladwell believes that we want instead to attribute behavior to “fundamental character traits” — true, but I think what’s more important is that we want to believe that we’re in control of our actions — that as humans, we may observe our environment and it might even make us feel but that we can overcome our surroundings (and our feelings) by conscious, deliberative, rational thought. I tend to agree with John Gray that this is largely nonsense.

*p163 Character:* ‘… is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent on circumstance and context. The reason that most of us _seem_ to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at _controlling our environment_.” Agreed! I’m pretty good at this sort of control myself, but boy is it tiring. I think it’s time for a break, for a lot of us.

*p179 Rule of 150*: Gladwell pulls out some great examples showing that the natural limit on the size of socially functional groups is about 150 people. I’ve always been proud of the way that AdMonsters exemplifies bigger isn’t better, and I think that _the_ reason for our unique success is that we’ve pursued a purely social approach, and kept the size of the [attending] group below this critical threshold.

*p198 Early Adopters*: “the attitude of the Early Adopters and the attitude of the Early Majority are fundamentally incompatible. … All kinds of high-tech products fail because the companies that make them can’t find a way to transform an idea that makes perfect sense to an Early Adopter into one that makes sense to a member of the Early Majority.” Quite so, and someone to keep in mind.

*p241 Parenting*: Gladwell notes the lack of evidence for parents’ ability to influence their childrens’ behavior, and proposes that kids learn behavior primarily not from parents but from social peers. Perhaps, but let’s not forget that families are social too.

There are a bunch of other books I’ve been meaning to write up… maybe I’ll get to that over the summer.