Teenage Smoking
Posted: January 4, 2010 Filed under: quote | Tags: cool, Malcolm Gladwell, rebellion, smoking, teenage Leave a comment »But they weren’t cool because they smoked. They smoked because they were cool. The very same character traits of rebelliousness and impulsivity and risk taking and indifference to the opinion of others and precocity that made them so compelling to their adolescent peers also make it almost inevitable that they would also be drawn to the ultimate expression of adolescent rebellion, risk taking, impulsivity, indifference to others, and precocity: the cigarette.
Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
The Rule of 150
Posted: December 29, 2009 Filed under: quote | Tags: community, effectiveness, group size, Malcolm Gladwell Leave a comment »…we have to keep groups below the 150 Tipping Point. Above that point, there begin to be structural impediments to the ability of the group to agree and act with one voice. If we want to, say, develop schools in disadvantaged communities that can successfully counteract the poisonous atmosphere of their surrounding neighborhoods, this tells us that we’re probably better off building lots of little schools than one or two big ones. The Rule of 150 says that congregants of a rapidly expanding church, or the members of a social club, or anyone in a group activity banking on the epidemic spread of shared ideals needs to be particularly cognizant of the perils of bigness.
Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
