Not exactly a barn-burner, Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell rebrands some original ideas brilliantly depicted in the author’s earlier work, The Tipping point, published in 2000. Gladwell’s quirky hypotheses will undoubtedly engage the next gen of readers with some oddball theories how seemingly “small things” affect many aspects of our unsuspecting lives. Gladwell presents specific rather than universal laws that merit curiosity but not accolades.
Why, asks Gladwell, is Miami the center for medical fraud and “ground zero for an extraordinary epidemic of criminality”? A case in point is Philip Esformes, former head of an empire of nursing-homes. Esformes was found guilty in a “billion dollar scheme of kickbacks, false billing and illegal deals”. But Gladwell asserts, something obscure outside of our obvious awareness, “an overstory” parlayed Phil, from nice guy business-man into Phil, the criminal. Gladwell maintains “the Waldorf spell, ” a powerful influence in Esforme’s early education -- one of several corrupting influences--- is only a small portion of the overstory to elucidate Phil’s illicit adult behavior.
Still mystified how a single person can rapidly infect thousands of others with Covid? Gladwell demystifies the problem employing findings from virological research. Virologists are scientists, who, in part, study things like “aerosols,” microscopic droplets of saliva that come out of our mouths” when we exhale or speak. No longer world shattering and in stark contrast with the W.H.O. the consulting virologists contend these little bubbles are airborne and float for some time before dropping. Gladstone’s “Law of the Few” proclaims some people are “superspreaders”. They expel much more than the average number of aerosols when speaking. And that is exactly what happened to an executive who was unknowingly infected with the virus in France, then flew ( before travel restrictions) to the USA where he addressed a packed ballroom at a bio-tech conference held in a Boston hotel. There he loudly and enthusiastically emitted millions of aerosols mischievously floating into the air ultimately infecting 300,000 people.
Another off-beat story connects the meager population of cheetahs with a wealthy, insular community--- a “monoculture” with little diversity---whose rate of suicide, in young people, is ten times the national average. Gladwell also skillfully connects Harvard’s skewed protocol of admissions, adding a new women’s rugby team--- notwithstanding the existence of Harvard’s fifty other athletic clubs. Equally compelling is Gladstone’s essay on “One Third Law.” A suburban Palo Alto housing community, deliberately comprised of an equal number of Caucasian, Asian and Black property owners, had one spare lot owned by the community realtor. One family however urgently needed that lot to accommodate relatives. The sale would upset the existing equilibrium. Gladwell explains how the community resolved the problem yet continue to maintain their desired one third equilibrium.
A few jaw-droppers but Gladwell’s encore falls short of getting my motor racing.