Tipping Point: Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, Essay Example

The typology of personalities classified by Malcolm Gladwell in his The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference as connectors, mavens and salesmen intends to further illustrate his theory of epidemics. Namely, all three of these types of personalities represent individuals who, although in distinct manners, facilitate the spread of epidemics; the latter, for Gladwell, denotes how all forms of social phenomena spread within a given society. Understanding each of these personality types therefore clarifies his concept of epidemic, while at the same time also providing an understanding of the ways in which individuals within a society contribute to the spread of epidemics.

Gladwell introduces his personality type of the connector through the work of Milgram’s concept of six degrees of separation. In short, six degrees of separation entails that individuals are separated from knowledge of each other through six levels of acquaintances, meaning that X1 knows X2, whereas X2 knows X6, until one can make a connection between X1 to X6. Gladwell nevertheless modifies Milgram’s concept, to the extent that he places emphasis on certain individuals within the separation chain who actualize the connections between individuals. As Gladwell argues, “in the six degrees of separation, not all degrees are equal.” (36) Namely, some individuals occupy more significant social positions, which connect them to a larger number of people, thus making the very chain plausible. An isolated hermit, therefore, may only know his parents and his close family from the past. However, he may have a brother who was part of an influential group of Freemasons who occupy various positions of power. The hermit is not the key link in this chain, but rather the brother who became a Freemason. In the context of Gladwell’s theory, connectors are those who contribute to the spread of epidemics, to the extent that they are highly networked individuals, knowing many people of different social roles and, above all, people of more influential social status.

If connectors are defined by who they know, then the concept of maven differs in that it accounts for what someone knows. For Gladwell, the maven is above all someone who has information. In an information society, a maven is thus important, because he or she is viewed as someone who possesses information. Nevertheless, Gladwell make the concept more precise: mavens are not only “passive collectors of information” (62), but also know how to utilize information. For example, a maven may work in marketing, understanding various subculture trends and then understand how to market a product based on these same trends. He or she will know what a subculture wants, in other words, and tailor the product in a particular manner which will appeal to this target audience. The maven not only possesses information and continues to collect, but is able to mobilize it in a pragmatic manner and efficient manner.

The final personality type which Gladwell identifies is the Salesman. Whereas the maven collects information and understands how to use it, the Salesman is one who increases the value of the same information in the eyes of others. In Gladwell’s words, the salesman is one who “possesses the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing.” (76) Hence, a connector is crucial to epidemics in so far as the people he or she knows occupy significant positions in the social order: these social positions are determined to be significant irrespective of the connector himself. Furthermore, the usefulness of a maven’s information is also dependent upon the context in which it is practiced: in some contexts, given information will be valuable and others not. The salesman, in this sense, can be said to be one who creates value. He or she demonstrates to another the value of something that may not be apparent at first glance. No one perhaps will see the immediate value of a product such as hula hoop, something entirely unnecessary to our everyday existence. Yet the salesman will endeavor to communicate to an audience why this seemingly valueless item does carry some value. A salesman can thus contribute to the formation of an epidemic by convincing others of the value of the content of the given epidemic, for example, a commercial product.

In light of these three personality types, I consider myself closest to the category of a maven. I am certainly not a connector, to the extent that my family and its acquaintances do not have a significant social status. I also would not consider myself a salesman, as I often have difficulty in convincing others of the value of my opinions and fail in this rhetorical exercise. Since the personality type of maven is related to the collection of information, this most fits my personality, since, for example, I am an avid Internet user, constantly reading about all sorts of topics from sites such as Wikipedia. Whereas I may not have learned to effectively use my information for success, I attribute this to my youth: the key feature of the maven as one who possesses knowledge appears to be in place within my personality.

Works Cited

Gladwell, Malcolm.  The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000.