Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell.
Malcolm holds a BA in history from the University of Toronto in 1984. He began as a staff writer at The Washington Post and today has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996 and is also the host of the podcast Revisionist History and co-founder of the podcast company Pushkin Industries.
Actually I find it a bit amazing to consider that I read Malcom’s book The Tipping Point in August 2007. As amazing as may seem, The Tipping Point was on the NYTimes Bestseller list for eight years. This was the first of eight books by him that I have read.
Now 25 years later he has published a follow up which is reframing some of his original stories. As always he crafts unique points of interest, discovers overlaps, and presents them in very intriguing ways. Malcolm is also in fact, now tracing the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. Perhaps this is the book that many readers must simply see as an indicator of social engineering. While I continue to struggle to effectively communicate the risks of social engineering on computers, Malcolm is presenting this risk in a much more eloquent manner.
The dark side of social engineering
The most possible, stark story is about America’s opioid epidemic. So how did a narcotics police officer in California understand how to stop the flow of opioids? Certainly to many the surprise is that Malcolm reveals the actions of that officer occurred in 1943 to stop the flow of strong narcotics into California’s shipping ports. His solution would help save hundreds of thousands from overdosing on opioids almost 50 years later. Read this book as it will reveals why the state of Indiana suffered more deadly outcomes from opioids than Illinois, a much larger neighboring state to the west which includes the major metropolitan of city Chicago. So why more opioid deaths within Indiana?
The interesting COVID data
Malcolm also is addressing the larger epidemic of our day: COVID. Malcolm addresses that the pandemic was very asymmetrical. A small number of people were actually responsible for most of the virus’s spread. It may be somewhat surprising to learn only 4-5% of infected individuals were producing significantly more viral particles, making them in fact the primary drivers of transmission. While he is expressing confidence in scientific advancements, he also notes concerns about the “human part” of the pandemic response.
This is simply in fact, the latest of his books that I have read and would strongly consider beginning with The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Outliers: The Story of Success, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Talking to Strangers, and The Bomber Mafia.
In conclusion, this is perhaps one of the few books that I ask everyone to read. This provides key lessons in our world today that simply cannot be overlooked.