Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Made to Stick - Chip & Dan Heath

Malcolm Gladwell is a best-selling author whose books are filled with random anecdotes which he tries to link together to create a mind-boggling theory. For example, Ken Lay, the Nintendo Wii, Jimmy Carter, and puppies can all bring peace to Palestine. Whenever I read anything by Gladwell, I am always fascinated by his vignettes, but I never see how they relate to his hypothesis. I should have expected the same with this book. Right in the introduction, the authors express their allegiance to Gladwell and vow to write a continuation of his books. If that was truly their goal, they should feel satisfied that they at least moderately achieved it. I feel that this book did a better job trying to tie everything together than any of Gladwell's writings; however, their anecdotes just weren't as captivating. And, as I mentioned earlier, I only like Gladwell for his anecdotes...these guys just did not succeed in that department. Even though I wasn't impressed with the authors' thoughts on "ideas that stick," their marketing ideas must be somewhat successful because I spent $20 on their book.

Completed: April 26, 2007

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