Sometimes you read a book and you and the author are not on the same wavelength.

Your eyes move over their words, but there’s something between you that just doesn’t click. I do not have that problem with Malcolm Gladwell.

“Whenever I look at an unopened bar of Ivory bath soap, I flip it over and burst out laughing,” Gladwell writes in his book “The Tipping Point.” “In the midst of all the product information, there is a line that says: ‘Questions? Comments? Call 1-800-395-9960.’ Who on earth could ever have a question about Ivory soap.”

If you’ve spent any time whatsoever reading this blog, you’d know that about half my entries are about just those sorts of questions. But while I mention the potential craziness of such situations, Gladwell is off being smarter than me. He thinks about why that’s actually a brilliant thing to put on the box.

It all comes down to what he describes in the book as “mavens.” These are people in our society who spend more time thinking about and researching products than the rest of us. They are the ones we would go to when we have questions–because we know they will always have good advice. So if you’re the Ivory Soap Company, you want to make it easy for the mavens to get their questions answered, since they’re really the only ones calling about soap. Then when I ask Joe Maven about soap, he’ll tell me Ivory is where it’s at.

Gladwell also taught me a lot about important things like “Blues Clues.” I had no idea Nickelodeon played the same exact episode of “Blues Clues” for five straight days. Because of the way kids learn, that turns out to be a pretty brilliant strategy and one Gladwell explains in detail. You can enjoy that when you read the book yourself–which you absolutely should.

I also learned that Paul Revere wasn’t the only midnight rider trying to warn colonists about the advancing British. It turns out he was the one who effectively spread the message because of his personal qualities. Revere was an example of what Gladwell calls “The Law of the Few.” He says that in order for social epidemics to spread, it is important to have the message in the hands of the right people. It’s more effective to tell five Revere types who can reach a wide range–with a sense of authority–than to reach a thousand people who don’t have a connective power.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go call a guy about some soap.