Tipping Point

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, is one of my favorite books. If you haven't read it yet, put it on your list. In it he talks about how ideas catch on, how certain trends take off and how others fall flat and what makes us, as a society, "tick".

There have been two phenomena in the past few weeks that make me think of his book. One of course, is blogging. I've heard about it for a while, but it took someone I know (someone I respect, admire, laugh with, have fun with and call "friend" -- and who prefers to remain anonymous in her blog, so I'll respect that here and refrain from naming names...) to inspire me to start my own.

Could it be this sort of thing that will brings blogging to its "tipping point"? One person nudging another into trying something new? I wouldn't be surprised if Malcolm Gladwell publishes an article about blogging soon.

The other thing that seems to be catching on like wildfire is Google Earth. I was first introduced to it by my cousin, Adrian, and since then a dozen or so people have fired me off e-mails saying, "Have you seen this? It's really cool. You've just gotta try it!" And hence, the downloading all over the globe continues as Google Earth moves closer towards its own "tipping point".

And by the way, if you haven't seen it, you've just gotta try it... http://earth.google.com/

While the earth continues to spin at its usual rate, technology and trends seem to be spinning in and out of fashion faster and faster... Curious phrase, "tipping point", since it implies that you are suddenly off balance.

Balance is supposed to be a good thing, isn't it?