Paradigmenwechsel – Wandel des Weltbilds

The US American sociologist and staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996 Malcolm Gladwell points out that very small changes in any or several of the context can tip over reality. When the impact, the quality ('stickiness') of an idea sparks a very small group of key people it can trigger a dramatic epidemic of change in society.

Excerpts from Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point. How Little Things Make a Big Difference, 2000

• In a given process or system some people matter more than others. pg. 19

• The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts. pg. 33

Four phases of building up to the tipping point:
1. Disappointment 2. Enthusiasm 3. Disillusionment 4. Recommendation
- Three categories of gifted people (multiplicators): Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople

• Sprinkled among every walk of life [...] are a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are Connectors. pg. 41
• I always keep up with people. (quoting a "Connector"). pg. 44
• In the case of Connectors, their ability to span many different worlds is a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy. pg. 49
• The point about Connectors is that by having a foot in so many different worlds they have the effect of bringing them all together. pg. 51

• The word Maven comes from the Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge. pg. 60
• The fact that Mavens want to help, for no other reason than because they like to help, turns out to be an awfully effective way of getting someone's attention. pg. 67
• The one thing that a Maven is not is a persuader. To be a Maven is to be a teacher. But it is also, even more emphatically to be a student. pg. 69

• There is also a select group of people – Salesmen – with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing. pg. 70
• [Tom Gau, a Salesman] seems to have some indefinable trait, something powerful and contagious and irresistible that goes beyond what comes out of his mouth, that makes people who meet him want to agree with him. It's energy. It's enthusiasm. It's charm. It's likability. It's all those things and yet something more. pg. 73

Gathering empirical quality ('sticky') data about ideas (theory or assumption can be debunked)

• Kids don't watch when they are stimulated and look away when they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away when they are confused. pg. 102
• Children actually don't like commercials as much as we thought they did. pg. 118
• The driving force for a preschooler is not a search for novelty, like it is with older kids, it's a search for understanding and predictability. pg.  126

Predictability vs. novelty
The rule of 150 – the ability to handle the complexities of social groups
The Hutterites, Amish or Mennonites have a rule that when a colony approaches 150, they split into two and start a new one. The Military generally split companies at size 150-200. Company Gore (Goretex) obeys a staff rule: ~150 employees per plant.

• At a bigger size you have to impose complicated hierarchies and rules and regulations and formal measures to try to command loyalty and cohesion. But below 150 [...] it is possible to achieve the same goals informally. pg. 180
• When things get larger than that, people become strangers to one another. pg. 181
• Crossing the 150 line is a small change that can make a big difference. pg. 183