This one has been my bathroom book for several weeks, but even at a few pages each time things do eventually get finished. I was tempted several times to bring it out and read it in chunks instead of nibbles, but I resisted.
This was completely fascinating. Why does this marketing campaign rocket a product to the top and another for an equivalent or even superior or the same product utterly fail? Who are the people who make the difference - and what would history look like if Paul Revere hadn't been who he was and where he was and the kind of person he was at the critical moment? I hadn't known that two fellows set out on similar rides that night: Paul Revere headed one direction and a guy named William Dawes in the other. Why does every school child know about Paul Revere's ride and only a very few revolutionary war buffs are aware of the other? According to Gladwell, it is because Revere was just one of those people who knows everyone - a connector.
He compares an "epidemic" of suicides among the young men in Micronesia to smoking among American young people. Why have all attempts to reduce smoking among teens and preteens failed? It seems that kids who take up smoking are the cool kids and others imitate them. The smoking equation is far more complex, but that seems to be one of the triggers. The suicide epidemic was even sadder. The trigger was the suicide of a very popular young man, and many that followed were much younger boys who just wanted to "try it out," not really wanting to die.
Who of my generation doesn't remember Hush Puppies? They were relegated to the back shelves of staid and boring shoe stores until a bunch of cool people with lots of connections decided that they were "in." I believe the standard Class A uniform pump for women in the Air Force is still black patent leather Hush Puppies.
He discusses at great length the people and mechanisms which make things happen. Cool stuff and well told.
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