Houston Southard
a name that looks so fake you'll care just as little to learn it's not
Malcolm Gladwell - Revenge of the tipping point
A dark sequel to Gladwell's original thoughts on how ideas go viral, building on his work in the tipping point on how the spread of social contagions follows specific rules.
Initially, Gladwell focused on the law of the few, the power of context, and the stickiness factor. 25 years later, he pivots to the dominant narratives and cultural beliefs that shape community behavior, namely in minority representation or social norms (overstories), the makeup of a group affecting how it behaves and when reaching a tipping point, noting that the presence of enough minority members can break stereotypes and show everyone's true abilities (group proportions), and the people who have a big impact on spreading ideas and behaviors (superspreaders).
He uses the idea of the passive voice to describe our tendency to avoid taking responsibility during epidemics, thinking their mysteriousness makes them uncontrollable which makes us deny our role in their start and growth.
He retells the overtold story of the opioid epidemic via California's strict prescription rules creating a narrative about opioids that made doctors less likely to prescribe them, and how Purdue Pharma took advantage of states without these strict rules, launching aggressive marketing for OxyContin. Using advice from McKinsey, Purdue focused its marketing on doctors who prescribed a lot, increasing the epidemic. The crisis got worse as heroin and fentanyl became more common, replacing prescription opioids as the main cause of death.
Gladwell's overstory breaks down breaking down complex social dynamics into relatable concepts, making it easy to grasp how narratives, group compositions, and influential individuals can drive significant movements.
Contagions foment from conditions that create opportunism which then scales with intention. Gladwell's takeaway is that by pinning down the underpinnings that rock social boats, ex post facto attempts to right the same ships are done successfully using the same framework.