Monday, February 13, 2012
2nd Blog post on SP Reading
For my second book I have begun reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Where Predictably Irrational looked at why individuals might make certain decisions The Tipping Point focuses on why large scale things happen. In a way it reminds me a lot of freakonomics, the Roe V. Wade and Crime Rate thing that Josh has been working with comes to mind, but the tipping point focuses specifically on things like that. Why did large scale changes happen so quickly? It is very interesting so far and not very intuitive, so reading it is constantly gripping. I so far have enjoyed it very much, but i think i prefer Predictably Irrational to it. I have ordered a used copy off amazon for cheap, so I hope to finish it soon after break (it will take about a week to arrive). This makes me think that for my senior paper I want to zoom in on something at the micro level rather than looking at large scale trends like I have for many of my other big papers in this class and at BHS as a whole. What specifically i dont know yet, but I think it would be interesting to try to zoom in on maybe one recent decision and look at all the factors that might have influenced it. For example maybe Ill want to use Government class and zoom to investigate "Why did Barney Frank not want to run for reelection?" or "Why did Obama do ___"
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I very much support your plan for your senior paper, but I also want to urge you to pick something that's NOT considered major. Trying to trace down causes for major trends is very hard; think about focusing on a trend that is a bit more quirky. Why did bobble-heads become so popular? (for example) why do so many students apply to Brown? Think about picking something that others haven't beaten to death.
ReplyDeleteHave your read Gladwell's other big book, Outliers? If not, and if this type of thinking interests you, you should check it out. I think you'll find it equally fascinating.
15/15