The Tipping Point is a sociological book by Malcolm Gladwell, who also has authored Blink and Outliers. As the title implies, the book analyzes the causes, components and processes of social epidemics using diverse examples such as fashion, crime, suicide, TV programs, books and even diseases. Using those cases, the author presents what happened, why that happened and what lessons can be taken from the situation, through analyzing it from various angles.

I opened the book as a business major in order to enhance my background knowledge outside the classroom. I neither knew much about the book, nor had any particular information that I wanted to find. Having sensed where the book was going, however, my baduk player self poked its head out from deep inside to show its interests in what the book had to say. Clearly the book was whispering, Let me tell you the secrets of social epidemics and popularity. Does that mean anything can tip? Can you tell me how baduk, too, could tip and gain worldwide popularity?      

According to the book, there are three important elements in sparking a lasting social epidemic; the law of of the few, the stickiness factor and the power of context. Let’s go over them one-by-one and discuss how baduk may adopt these in order to tip.

The law of the few suggests that it’s only few influential people who matter in spreading something's popularity. In other words, it’s not how many people you convinced that counts--the question is whether the people you convinced include certain types of influential people, who will transfer the message to the public in their own ways. When the public gets a message from this type of person, the message becomes more powerful and convincing. The types of influential people are; those who know a lot more people than the rest of us (Connectors), those who know a lot more information about a specific topic (Mavens), and those who are more charismatic and persuasive than we are (Salesmen).

What does this mean for baduk? It’s more effective to teach baduk to the right people and let them do the work than it is to try to teach as many people as possible by ourselves. Though I don’t believe we should seek out these types of people and forcibly recruit them, it would certainly help to bear in mind that these kinds of people may be more influential in spreading baduk.  

Suppose you set up a booth, and taught baduk to 20 people. Does that mean there are now 20 more dedicated baduk players? It could be, but probably not. The stickiness factor is a quality that makes an idea remain in people’s minds, and possibly influence them in the future. The book introduces much research and many techniques for increasing the stickiness of an idea through the examples of Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues--children’s TV programs.

Reading this part of the book, I had two ideas. One is that it would be great if Baduk TV made an educational but entertaining children’s baduk program. Just as Sesame Street was designed to educate children to read and Blue’s Clues was for fostering reason and logic in children, the program could make baduk accessible and embedded in the audience's mind from an early age. As long as the program is well-made, producing DVDs, as well as dubbing or subtitling it into other languages wouldn’t be a problem.

My second idea is to set up a learner-oriented manual for teaching beginners. Looking at the extensive research and experiments those successful TV programs conducted, I thought the same rigor and analysis were necessary for baduk education and promotion. For instance, we might have a conference for baduk instructors all over the world on teaching beginners and how to make baduk stickier in them. Instructors would share their own ways discuss them in depth. After the conference, we publish a manual that introduces how to teach beginners in America when the learner is young, in college or in 50’s. Likewise, the manual should have cases for Korea, Thailand, France and so on. Through personalizing the manuals by countries or region, educators could tailor the techniques to be the stickiest possible for that area.

The third element is the power of context. The power of an idea to tip is dependent on the time and place it emerges. Korea has probably the best context in the world for baduk players. Virtually all Korean people know what baduk is even if they don’t know how to play. Many of them perceive the game as smart people’s entertainment, and agree that it has educational value for children. Occasionally, you find people playing in parks, and there are two university departments and two cable TV stations only devoted to baduk. Then, what can or should other countries do to set up such a powerful context for baduk?

The author suggests that certain groups may help. In the case of baduk, national associations, regional clubs and school clubs would be the groups that may fuel the spread of the game. When the groups settle, they also need to grow by welcoming beginners and motivating members with events, such as friendship matches between nations, regions or shcools.

Another idea for creating context is to have a You-Tube contest for baduk promotional videos, or fan-made commercials. Videos are easy to share with the public, often fun and interesting, and consequently they would help to increase widespread recognition of baduk. By tapping into the creativity and individual cultural contexts of baduk players around the world, we would utilize new media, and viral marketing techniques and encourage fans to promote baduk in ways we might never even think of.

Tipping baduk into a worldwide epidemic may require a great deal of human and financial resources without immediately tangible profits. For the game we care about, though, we shouldn’t fear this. We shouldn’t over-play, but under-play is not a solution either. As baduk players, we should start with using our skills and knowledge in a smart and strategic way. Utilizing the principles and ways of thinking that Malcom Gladwell elucidates out in this book might be a good first step in this direction.