To review this book in the conventional form, is to go against the very basic grain/thought behind the book. To put it in the context of mouthshut.com, the whole idea of the book is simply to look at reason why certain reviews are read more than others. Why certain reviewers are preferred more than others. Think about it, when the reviewer is communicating more about his views of the product and less about what should come in a review, that sometimes would connect with the reader even more.
To put the idea of the book in today’s context, no better example would be kolaveri di and why it works. Kolaveri di worked because of all factors that are mentioned in the book.
The law of the few – Gladwell demonstrates the power of this rule through examples of Hush puppies and it rise in the fashion echelons. How a small bunch of kids started wearing shoes that had seen its day but revived probably because of connectors and mavens. Basically connectors are those who just spread the message.
In present day context, no better example is Kolaveri di and why and how it went viral. – Where did you hear first about this song? – Just one friend who sent the link or mentioned something about it? The Link hit a connector or a maven. And that friend heard something about it from just one friend and so now you hear it from every other friend – The basic point – To start an “epidemic” or something that it contagious is done by very “few” – All that it takes for something to go viral and for it to spread its message/concept/idea.
One may attribute this to the power of the internet and the rise of social media and the power of being online, Right? That’s wrong just for two reasons – Messages like diseases have been contagious and numerous examples in history are evidence to this chronic spreading of any message. Gladwell calls them connectors and mavens. The other reason is that there are 60 hours of video that is uploaded every minute. So why does Kolaveri work? Is it the RAJNI factor? Maybe, but there are equally more popular versions of Kolaveri other than Sonu Nigam’s Son’s version. So why did Kolaveri work?
The answer to that lies in the book again- “The stickiness factor” as Gladwell puts it. Kolaveri di is “sticky”. It sits in your head. Just like the numerous messages on TV. Unless it is sticky, a message won’t work.
But then when one comes out with loud messages with ghastly images of what happens by not having a tetanus shot, would, you thought result in better sensitivity and more response to taking a shot right? Actually, the key difference here is just displaying the places where the tetanus shot can be taken.
The book also cities of numerous other examples such as Sesame street that ended up being so effective through TV, medium which in itself was said to be the cause of children not studying. About how the importance of context and the relevance of the number 150 plays in transmitting ideas.
The critical point of this book is that small things yes go on to make a big difference. About how on small piece of information through the correct means ends up in an epidemic. About how several ideas end up being the big ones because of the right kind of impetus and stimulus.
The sad point of the book – Its difficult to disagree with Gladwell, however his intention to use these examples may be stimulating to read but leads you to believe that all these examples are just –that – Stimulating t read..!! These are examples of why things worked when one didn’t necessarily know that it should work. I don’t think anyone deliberately would use the same techniques and expect the same result. The fact is that the reason why these epidemics happen is best categorised as a behaviour similar to the stock market analysts – Once the stock moves up, they know why it’s gone up whereas rarely one would know why a stock should go up. I’m not sure that even Buffet knew his methods would have made him millions. Else those simple methods should have created several billionaires. Sometimes knowing why things work may not help always in why things will always work and may just end up in imitation.
Also it’s not that many factors that Gladwell has stated in his book are not well known. Many of them have been implicitly executed. The stickness factors has been used by advertisers to come with slogans such as "thanda matlad coca cola" or "what an idea". Movies have tried to create or repeast dialogues of villans to create that stickiness factor - "Mogambo khush huwa" and the corny "Badi badi desho main...."
Nevertheless the book does serve some useful lessons in understanding why certain things work and that the smaller points needs attention. Gladwell does his research well before arriving at a conclusion and communicates his idea in a very simple language that would engage any average reader with some interest in "thinking"
Good book in all.