I got through two books over winter break, Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and Dan and Chip Heath's Made to Stick.
The Tipping Point is the first book of Gladwell's that I have read and I enjoyed it. It was an easy read.
Main Takeaways:
"Character" is not hard and fast. People are exquisitely sensitive to situational context. Ex. Birth Order only applies when you are with your family.
Parents don't matter as much as peer groups for "nuture".
Stickiness is a characteristic of the Product
Law of the Few applies to the messengers--Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople
The power of Translation, speaking the language of different groups to Cross the Chasm from Innovators/Early Adopters to Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards. First group likes risk, second does not.
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation--the importance of seeing the progress or impact of your work is greater than external reward systems
Made to Stick is a follow up or companion piece to The Tipping Point that goes in depth into what makes ideas sticky. For a book about making things memorable I had a hard time getting through it and remembering the main acronym.
Main Takeaways:
Main Ideas need to be Core and Compact-don't bury the lead
Need to change from 'what do I need to convey?' to 'what do I want the audience to ask?'
The Maslow Hierarchy is not a hierarchy, you don't have to satisfy one need before you seek the next. We seek mostly seek some combination simultaneously.
Sticky Ideas are:
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories