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

“Epidemics have rules. They have boundaries. They are subject to overstories—and we are the ones who create overstories. They change in size and shape when they reach a tipping point—and it is possible to know when and where those tipping points are. They are driven by a number of people, and those people can be identified. The tools necessary to control an epidemic are sitting on the table, right in front of us. We can let the unscrupulous take them. Or we can pick them up ourselves, and use them to build a better world.”

“In the end, nearly everyone was in agreement. Something dramatic happened when a once-insignificant set of outsiders reached between one-quarter and one-third of the population of whatever group they were joining.”

“But what you give up in a world of uniformity is resilience.”

“The best solution to a monoculture epidemic is to break up the monoculture.”

“I think we can go one step further. I think we can call the Magic Third a universal law. (Or at least something very close to universal.)”

“Adding a second woman clearly helps,” the study goes on. But it still wasn’t enough: The magic seems to occur when three or more women serve on a board together. Three out of nine people. The Magic Third!”

“That’s the revenge of the Tipping Point: The very same tools we use to build a better world can also be used against”

“If the world can be moved by just the slightest push, then the person who knows where and when to push has real power. So who are those people? What are their intentions? What techniques are they using? In the world of law enforcement, the word forensic refers to an investigation of the origins and scope of a criminal act: “reasons, culprits, and consequences.” Revenge of the Tipping Point is an attempt to do a forensic investigation of social epidemics.”

“Communities have their own stories, and those stories are contagious.”