Verb This Book

[ase]

I started reading The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference yesterday, and got to the second page of the first chapter before I nearly threw it across the bus. There are no graphs in sight! The author starts the chapter by saying, "syphillis in Baltimore increased by 500%" without saying what the numerical increase was. A 1-to-5 increase is not a compelling statistic; a 10,000-to-50,000 increase is. So: do I need to finish this The Tipping Point, or toss it in the "return to used book store" pile post haste?

Comments

Junk it.

[asciilifeform.livejournal.com]

I recommend reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "The Black Swan" instead. It is something like a "thinking person's version" of "The Tipping Point." IMHO, Gladwell is a poser and an intellectual lightweight.

Re: Junk it.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Ad hominem? Harsh, man. Thanks for the heads-up about The Black Swan.