Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering

Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell

People will often "tip" to a different view when a significant number pivot to another view. The number differs, but is often 1/4 to 1/3. These "tips" can be good or bad. Understanding the "tips" can help influence policy. However, there are social issues to consider. Housing integration lead to white flight when neighborhoods as people wanted to get out while they good. Many people would be fine with a 20% black neighborhood. However, they felt that 20% was just the first step towards 100% black. Limiting the numbers could have improved integration, but at the expense of personal ability to live where desired. For air pollution, significant effort is spent on emission testing cars. However, technology exists to identify most polluting vehicles on the road. The highest polluters contribute dis to air pollution. Forcing them to fix their cars (or impounding them) would cause the most significant improvement. However, what if they don't have resources to fix their car? Is it fair?

The book examines a few medical tipping points. In the opioid epidemic, states that required narcotic prescriptions in triplicate had a smaller problem and how trying to limit abuse ended up driving many addicts underground. For vaccines, Waldorf schools tend to have very low vaccination rates. The culture of the school tends to encourage lower vaccination rates, with even the same family having lower vaccination after attending the schools. Doctors themselves are very influenced by their local culture. Some hospitals have higher rates of procedures, influence by common tipping points.

There are many other examples of how people can be influenced by seemingly random things. For example, Will and Grace helped paint gays as normal and paved the way for gay marriage. A community with "great" schools and a driven population could fall to a suicide epidemic due in part to sameness without resiliency. The book includes narration as well as audio clips from involved parties making it a great pop-science book.