Argument Against The Tipping Point
Remember the Influencers in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point? Duncan Watts doesn’t believe that a few influential people create trends.
Mind you, Watts does agree that some people are more instrumental than others. He simply doesn’t think it’s possible to will a trend into existence by recruiting highly social people. The network effects in society, he argues, are too complex–too weird and unpredictable–to work that way. If it were just a matter of tipping the crucial first adopters, why can’t most companies do it reliably?
Both sides of the argument make sense to me. I’d side more with Watts than Gladwell at this point, but I’m giving him only a slight edge.
Tags: duncan watts, malcolm gladwell, marketing