The Tipping Point

I have recently read 'The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell and many aspects and ideas discussed in the book I found very interesting. Some of the ideas and concepts made me think about how things do happen and what makes them happen and even how we could control them, I began relating aspects of the book to my life. Being able to relate to the book increased its interest for me. Although areas of the book I did find repetitive and so slightly boring, however this use of repetition did cement the points being made in my memory.

Creating this mind map has helped me to understand ‘The Tipping Point’ more clearly and I found the process quite enjoyable, although I found some areas quite difficult to map out as there are so may connections and overlaps within the book. I particularly liked using MindNode as a tool to create this mind map, as MindNode is quick, neat, tidy and easy to use. It is a programme I will be keen to use to plan out my ideas in the future. Within my mind map I explored the epidemic section in greater depth than the other areas as I found this most interesting I concentrated particularly on the Hush Puppy epidemic. This is because I found it very surprising to learn that something so small as the actions of a few kids in East Village and Soho could make such a huge difference.

I think many things I have learnt from this book will be relevant to my studies in Textile Design and also in other areas of my life. For example, the information about the amount of trial and error necessary to create Sesame Street highlights the importance of testing, the need for lots of attempts, small adjustments and constant analysis whilst creating.It is also very useful to know Connectors, Mavens and Salesman if you wish to create an epidemic or increase sales or get something noticed. Small changes can make a big difference. A small reduction in the budget to treat syphilis can leave a few untreated Connectors, which can cause a large number of newly infected people. Changing the colour of a small area of a print could have a huge impact. Things happening all around us even small initially somewhat unnoticeable things can have a dramatic impact.

This is the mind map i created to explore the contents of the 'Tipping Point'

I then went on to look in more depth at the Hush Puppies epidemic.

Please note i have posted the two mind maps shown above separately, as here the images appear very small and the text is too small to read.