Also just read Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, which by comparison with Capra is a crushing bore. Yes, certain small things can have disproportionate non-intuitive effects. Yes ideas spread like contagion. Yes it helps if the idea “sticks” and is transmitted to the next generation of communicators. Yes communication is more than words. Zero-tolerance. Look after the pennies. Intentions matter. Yes it helps if the environment (context) supports the idea. No, really ?
This is memetics – just ask Darwin, Dawkins and Blackmore. (None of whom get even a reference). The fact that Tipping Point is an acclaimed best-seller proves its own point. Sh*t sticks.
I exaggerate of course. It’s not wrong, just unoriginal packaged as groundbreaking – the one thing sure fire to wind me up. Athropology is what humans do. Whether its the fashion business or business fashions. The rules of 7 and 150. Crossing Geoffery Moore’s chasm. It’s 50 / 50 in the genes and in social peer behaviour, and practically nil in rationalised messages, rules and intents of parents, educators, managers, directors, authorities or governments. It’s game theory in practice, and we’re all part of the same athropological game of life. I’d have quoted Pinker’s analysis, Gladwell quotes Judith Harris directly.
Life is the name of the game, and I want to play the game with you (or not as the case may be) – after Brucie.
No denying the evidence of Tipping Point’s success proves its own message. Oh well. Nothing new under the sun – again. Rats!