Malcolm Gladwell may not have invented the term “tipping point,” but if we lived in a fairer world his popularization of the phrase surely would have earned him a licensing fee. The Tipping Point, published in 2000, has sold millions of copies, and Gladwell followed that book, his first, with a string of other best-sellers, including Blink and Talking to Strangers. In true Gladwellian fashion, he re-evaluates and expands the conclusions he reached in his first book with his latest work, Revenge of the Tipping Point.
JIM KELLY: Twenty-five years ago, you published The Tipping Point, an examination of those moments “when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” Your own book spread like wildfire, and the term tipping point seemed to be on everyone’s lips, even those who I suspect never read your book. Most folks, I assume, grasped what you were saying, but have you run into misconceptions about what you wrote?
