读书笔记 - The Tipping Point, Part II

As to the stuff itself, Gladwell summarized it as - the Stickiness Factor(附着力法则): "The quality that compels people to pay close, sustained attention to a product, concept, or idea."

To get user stuck, Gladwell suggested the followings:
1.Simple and Intuitive UI. Don't make the user think, no more effort is needed to use it.
2.Make it Practical and Personal: user can complete the operations easily, and let user feel the view is specific to him/her.
3.Interactive with User: Let user feel involved, let user feel being part of the whole system.

Let's use the Internet industry as study case. In web design community, there is a popular book named "Don't Make Me Think". The main idea is the same as Gladwell pointed: simple and intuitive user interface, then there will be little cost for the user to try the features you provide.

Personalized view is another core value of modern web applications. In past time, there were many portal web sites, like yahoo, cnn, msn etc. When people visit these sites, every one get the same thing, nothing different. But people are different, they have various interests and personal preferences, they wish to own their personalized view of these information. As web information keep on exploding, the need for customization keep on rising. Many pioneer content provider now exploit these results, they provide personalized view of their content. For example, Yahoo provide myYahoo, and CNN provide rss feed that user can subscribe, both enable the personalized view of the whole content.

As to the "Interactive with user" principle, I think this is the most important character that makes web 2.0 differ from conventional web 1.0. In web 1.0 age, the web site owner is the creator of all the content, they determine what the site looks like, what user will get. While in web 2.0 ages, the user of the web site created the content, they have control on the finally view of the whole system. For example, in Digg, Slashdot, there is no such positions as editor, every user is author and editor. You can submit news to the site, you can rank/comment it, which will affect the finally popularity of this news.

Another observation is from modern search engines. Nowadays, both Google and Yahoo provide login/personalized search. These search engines will record your search history and will use these information to customize/tune your search result, which will form a good feedback loop to improve the search quality. This feature exploits both "Personalized view" and "Interactive with user", although there were some privacy risks.

When you interactive with the web application, when you submit content and when you got personalized view of the content, you feel like becoming part of the whole system. You will never think of leaving out of it, because you lose too much if you do so.

Thus, the web site get you stuck to it successfully, which forms another important factor of making something get popular as Gladwell pointed out in this book.
[To be continue]

读书笔记 - The Tipping Point, Part I

-The Mystery of How Things Getting Popular & Lessons learned from the book: “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell.

"The tipping point" is a book written by GladWell, a famous New Yorker columnist, in around 2002. It gives some profound explanations on social epidemics. This is a popular book in the Web 2.0 community including Chinese Internet industry community. Here are some sum up in my own opinion about this interesting book.

In the beginning, Gladwell gave a brief description about the meaning of the term 'Tipping Point' : “The Tipping Point(引爆点) is that magic moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”[1]

To identify what makes a social epidemic and what makes a small stuff get popular, Gladwell pointed out three main factors in such an social phenomenon:
1.“What”: the Idea, Concept or Product itself;
2.“Who”: the People who transmit them;
3.“Where”: the Environment where those things spread and turn popular;

The main body of this book is telling the characteristics of these three factors in social epidemics.

Gladwell titled the people factor as "the Law of the Few"(个别人物法则). He said, before an idea, concept, or product can reach the tipping point, a few key types of people must champion/advocate it.

These few people can be divided into Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors are individuals who have ties in many different social networks. (Just as Hubs/Routers in Computer network) While Mavens(内行) are the information gatherers of the social network. They can be aware of tiny changes around. Finally, Salesmen are people who are extremely persuasive in inducing others’ buying decisions and behaviors.

An typical social epidemic works in this way: First, Mavens Find the Sensitive Information (Idea, Concept or Product) and Tell the Connector. Then, Connectors Transmit it to Massive People through his various social relationships. Finally, Salesmen Persuade People to Take Action. If all phases are successful, the Tipping Point is reached! Another thing he mentioned in his book is that Maven/Connectors/Salesman are just roles, one people may play multiple roles.

I think it's a reasonable explanation. Think about those people around you, they can be roughly divided into these three types. Let's study the case of Douban[2], an success web2.0 website in China.

Douban never do any massive media advertisement on TV station nor Radio station. But today it has millions of registered users, very active user created content and many people use it in their daily life(includes myself).

AhBei, the creator of Douban, is somewhat a book Maven, he likes reading books and sharing them with others. As a pioneer in web2.0 wave, he has some connections to those popular bloggers in China, such as Laobai and Keso etc. These popular bloggers act as Connectors - they have many friends and social activities in real world, and also they have many blog subscribers. They told other people about the Douban web site by means of talking with his friends or acquaintance in social party or meeting , and they can also do this by blogging.

As these people have big influence in public and have good reputation, blog subscribers or his acquaintance, who heard of Douban from him will try this website undoubtedly. So they also behaved in another role of Salesman.

Thus, many Internet users in China know this website, if this website itself has some basic factors that can attractive normal user and can get them stuck to this site, this web site reaches its tipping point and gets popular consequently.

We all know that, on Internet, in the time of web1.0, it's very easy for the user to leave for another similar service provider, it's nearly zero cost. So, to reach tipping point, to make a social epidemic, how to get those users stuck to your website in web2.0 time? What's the characteristics of those popular things themselves? What makes users get stuck to them and make them get popular?

[to be continue]
[1]http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/
[2]http://www.douban.com

说点什么好呢?

这个五一节，体验了很多东西，学会了很多东西。

有的人，注定是没法妥协的，因为始终过不了自己这一关。

我们都生活在同一个星球上，但却往往生活在不同的世界。

每个人，永远都走不出自己的世界，也进入不了别人的世界。

今年五月的北京，就像一口炽热的大铁锅，四处乱串的人们就像锅边的蚂蚁。

慢慢来吧，以后的路还长着呢。

p.s. 来北京快四年了，总算找到机会去逛了逛圆明园和颐和园，也总算见识了People Mountain People Sea的场面。

送行正流行

每年的春夏之交，总是人事变动频繁的时节，今年也不例外。不论公司内外，同事同学，来来往往的人比比皆是。单在这个星期，就知道四个和自己有关联的人工作变动的信息。

先是我们组的同事zp，在周一午餐的时候证实了以前的离职传闻。小新同学要回到魂签梦绕的西子湖畔，为丁同学的研究院效力去了。从现在了解的情况看，在zp同志的career path上，这次变动算青云直上，恭喜恭喜。不过西格玛从此缺少了一位妖娆的“东方不败”，一位才华横溢的相声表演者，一位脱离了低级趣味的开发者。从zp同志的farewell letter发出后各方老大们的反映来看，zp同志在知春路这几年确实没有白呆，前途远大的年轻人，一路走好！

接下来的是原来的同学和现在的同事胡帅同学的消息，周二的时候确认拿道PKU光华管理的Ph.D program admittion，正在谋划check out process。虽然为了学位这几年也许要损失一大笔cash，不过总算走上了自己梦寐以求的道路。胡帅同学虽然阅历尚浅，思想有待成熟，但是对于拥有远大抱负的年轻人，这也许是一笔财富，或者更准确说，是人生中珍贵的，一次性的资本。

而刚刚过去的几个小时里，在知春路麻辣诱惑，为我们tango team的主力Intern:晖晖送行。IEG又损失了一位踏实勤奋，幽默上进的小伙子。早日回到重庆也好，赶紧写完论文，抽空找个重庆mm，不然到了深圳，就没有那么多时间悠闲了。这次饭桌上，发挥群体整合的优势，玩了各种有趣的游戏，乐得一桌人人仰马翻，倒也爽快，不过晖晖同学似乎比较伤感，总是心事重重。也难怪，性情中人在这种场合，总会有些多愁善感。晖晖，一路走好，有机会再回西格玛呼风唤雨。

而在几分钟以前，老宋同学也告知了自己最新的打算。不是每个人都能忍受平淡无味，简单重复的日子，趁着体内一腔热血还为冷却，确实应该好好奋斗一番。以老宋的性格，应该有更光明，更伟大的前途。老宋，may it be!

现在的世界，纷繁复杂，最难能可贵的，就是坚持自己的道路，勇敢走下去。路漫漫依然修远，但只要明天太阳依旧会升起，就应不辞劳苦上下求索。

毕业大半年，落后一大半

最近林妹妹过生，和他老公一起约了我和兔子去母所（这名字真别扭）门口的黑竹笋烧鸡小聚片刻。席间胡侃，差不多快结束的时候，不知道怎么聊起了电影。原本在这方面，我还多少有些自信的，怎么说也是当年的Vice President嘛。不过聊着聊着我才发现，原来在电影届也有“看电影如逆水行舟，不进则退”这一说，我已经严重跟不上大家的节奏了。在后来去McDanold吃冰淇淋的路上，自己基本上已经“沦为”一位沉默的听众了……

毕业快有一年了，这大半年，除了公司包场还有去华星，星美看过几次暴米花电影以外，我已经没再把光影世界当作我的业余爱好了。这一年，不断接触新的技术和平台，为了适应不断变化的项目需求，东奔西走；这一年，为了不丢下自己读书期间的积累，晚上常常熬到深夜；这一年，为了反思过往的失误，我将个人生活降到了最低；这一年，在公司埋头苦干，我已经几乎忘记了我原来还有电影爱好这一说。

回来的路上，林妹妹对我说，其实时间还是有的，只不过没有用来看电影而已。她说得很对，这一年在忙，我还是看了两个season的Prison Break。这一年再忙，我还是每天在自己的电脑上耗费了很多时间和精力。这一年再忙，我还是下载了很多电影，只是从来没有那个耐心去观看而已。然而，然而我好像已经过了看电影找谈资的年纪了，还是干点不那么浪费时间的事情比较好。

电影上在下是落后了，然则和以前听到的关于读书时和工作时的人的区别不同，这次聊天之后，我才发现，好像是他们留在某所读博的人更像工作的人，而我工作了将近一年之后，心态和想法上，更像一个在继续读书的人。不知是这半年的生活和所里的环境改变了他们的心态，还是我被知春路旁那座永是灯火通明的大楼里的氛围塑造了。

老罗曾经说，他毫不否认自己是一个三十多岁的理想主义者。大多数理想主义者，在理想破灭之后，往往会看破红尘，游戏人间，变成一个纯粹的虚无主义者，从此耻于谈论理想与人生大义。

现在的我离三张还是稍微有那么点距离，前段时间还给人写信发豪言壮志，似乎心中还有那么点理想和激情。但是过往经历的惨痛教训依然横亘在心中，头顶的紧箍咒依然没有解除，这颤颤微微的脚步，究竟还能在这条漫漫长路上迈多久……

人生最痛苦的事情，不是自己想要的东西，永远都得不到；也不是得到的东西，原来不是自己想要的；而是你渴望的东西虽然就近在咫尺，但是却总是遥不可及。

人最痛苦的死亡，不是缺乏补给，被人体热量消耗折磨的奄奄一息之后，头眼昏花而亡；也不是鲜活的肉体，被一块一块割除的凌迟处决；而是在无比饥饿的你面前，摆上一桌你永远吃不上的美味佳肴，让你慢慢被身体里那股熊熊的欲望焚烧得一干二净，让你眼睁睁看着自己的灵魂出壳，并且绝望地对此感到无能为力。

这种炼狱般的痛苦，我尝承受数年，消磨了诸多棱角，也磨砺了钢铁意志。希望这次来到宝库，将不再空手而归。即使经历百般艰难困苦，也要在人生旅途中，写下浓重的一笔！