Yesterday, I attended a talk given by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of ‘The Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink’. I became a huge fan of his work after Laura reccomended his books to me. The Tipping point was quite an inspirational read: motivating in the sense that it shows how something very small can spark something very big, and full of numbers and facts to back up the odd social theories. It’s definately something I’m greatly interested in with a lot of what I’m thinking about being on the border or viral marketing.

To be honest, I had no idea what Malcolm Gladwell would talk about when I turned up at the Lyceum Theatre. Would it be within the kind of area I’m interested in? or something very very different. One thing I was sure of was that it’d be very interesting…and I was definately right on that one.

Obviously, Gladwell was in London to promote his new book:  Outliers: The Story of Success and I guess this is what his talk was loosely based on. I was a little worried when he joked about usually calling the topics of his talks something to do with Freud, or famous people from centuries ago to draw the crowds or make them think he’d come up with some genious theory. Luckily, he didn’t have a title for this talk, and it was truly engrossing and entertaining.

He gave some shocking accounts of plane crashes over the last 20 years, and how they’d nearly all been a result of a series of human errors. One particular example, he showed stemmed from a difference in culture which lead to mitigation… a definate no no amongst the airline industry. His argument was that by understanding where people come from historically and the culture that surrounds them we can understand why they behave the way they do. I’ve just ordered his book and can’t wait to dive in. I’m guessing it’s going to be explaining how we can show that high achievers are the product of their culture and surroundings. The chain of events which help a successful person suceed are the same as those which led to a Columbian aircraft crashing and I guess after he’s shown us how to identify the stimuli… it’s up to us to work out how to nurture them.

If you get a chance, go and see one of Gladwell’s talks, even if it is about Freud. Although the subject matter might not be interesting, there’s a whole wealth of background to be absorbed.

Filed under: Events by marc

Tags: London, Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, Talk, Tipping Point