The Tipping Point: Part Two

So I must admit that I found this chapter/section of the book to be much more interesting than the first. That being said I really enjoyed the first section too! But this one talked about the kinds of people who can create 'The Tipping Point.' It starts with the 'connectors.' Which was a really interesting idea of a type of person who knows everyone and there for is the reason that you know everyone that you know. Now being an actor I can say that this is a very interesting and common thing. Everyone in my field knows everyone because like the point made with the 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon' people tend to work with one another over and over while also meeting new people in every project. But then you have the real 'connectors' within the "connectors." While I may know a lot of people I definitely tend to take the route of having more close friends that knowing everyone a little bit. I still know a lot of people a little bit, but I tend to have a close circle that are my real friends. But the 'connectors' in the acting world make Roger Horchow look like an amateur (not that he is!!!) with the amount of contacts they have. But a part of the entertainment industry is literally getting to know people to try and get the next job. In addition to that lots of actors need to also have a survival job which often changes a lot. So they also live many different worlds as well. As is on the test in the book I got a 44. Which may not seem like a ton, but for someone in their twenties, it is a lot! Also there were plenty of names in there I'd never seen before and names that I would have thought were really common that weren't in it. But I have a few friends that probably would score well over 100.

The second person being a 'mason' is really interesting idea because I know a lot of these people too. One of the most interesting thing I've found in my life so far are the fact that certain groups tend to be the ones who get the best information and give them out. On such groups are the hard of hearing and the deaf communities. Being hard of hearing, but hearing enough to get by with hearing-aids, I was not exposed to this group of people until later in life. But in reading books on the difference in culture it is often mentioned that the deaf community is very strongly knit. This makes sense when you think about it because how many people know ASL (american sign language) or even enough to talk a little bit? So when you find a place where they are nice and also are able to help out they tell each other. This doesn't make it so that they won't go to other places of course, but on a side note, as a gay man, I tend to find out what places are friendly and go back and give them my business over and over because I feel safe there. in addition to this in the deaf culture money is not as "sacred" and it is ok to ask how much something costs and to tell people where to go for the best deals. Again as a gay man it makes sense to me that a group of people who share a bond would look out for each other. In addition to that you develop a trust with these people so that like Mark Alpert, 'when advice is given you will take it!'

The third kind of person mentioned was 'salesman.' Again I am very familiar with this kind of person. This is basically what actors do everyday with their lives, try and sell themselves to be what the producers and casting directors want in their films. But seeing how this is an election year it was also really interesting to me to watch the GOP debate as of late. All of them are essentially salesmen trying to sell one main product which is them. They are a product made of lots of many products such as their ideas to fix the country and their opinions on how life should be. I personally don't think that of the four GOP candidates there is a good salesman in the bunch. Now to be fair I am very much an Obama fan and while I have not loved everything that he has done I still like him. I think that out of all of them Obama is probably the best salesman in this upcoming presidential election. Ron Paul is probably the close second and the reason why for me is that I believe that he believes what he is talking about and his opinions. As for Gingrich, Santorum, and Romney their body language, faces and speech patterns make me feel like they are lying and they know it. I'm also very in tune with how people act in person and body language not just from acting but also because I'm hard of hearing. I rely on physical cues just as much as the verbal, because sometimes I don't hear everything coming out of someones mouth. For this reason I feel like I'm good at telling who is a salesman and who isn't. (I'm not perfect at figuring it out but still quite good at it!)

I also found it interesting when Malcolm talked about the news anchors in the election year of Reagan/Mondale. As we can see nowadays news is no longer news. News by nature is facts being read and told to the viewers with no bias. Today every news anchor has an opinion and the need to tell you how their views should be your views. I do enjoy the passion that is in the news anchors but would like to have one or two channels that have nothing to do with their views and just relay the facts. Also the other thing was the experiment on having people shake their heads or be still. This was quite fascinating and if you look at the current debates and the president and how they act you can see why certain people are just liked more than others. For example when it comes time for the debates between the GOP candidate and Obama I think that we are going to see a real shift in the poll numbers for the GOP candidate because they will be playing against someone who can charm people just by entering the room. His body language  and movements are like the head shaking and will most likely help him.

The other thing that I never noticed was the dance that people do when talking to each other. I had read a few passages when I was younger from a book called, 'Flirting 101: How to Charm Your Way to Love, Friendship, and Success,' (I think it was this book!!!) which talked about how a way to make people comfortable and more willing to talk to you is to mirror their body. So if they're leaning against the wall with their right shoulder then you should lean against it with your left shoulder. By mimicking their moves you subtly put yourself on their level which makes everyone feel comfortable. Back when I went to therapy I noticed that my therapist would do this too! It caused me to open up faster and lead to more discoveries and better sessions. The dance to me seems to be a similar thing. For example if you get into the same pattern with someone it will make people feel comfortable and feel like they're connecting with you.

I want to finish this off with two more things. One is a glance back at part one which I missed which talks about Kitty Genovese. I was really surprised when I had read this because I had witnessed something similar to that not but a week ago. I was out with a friend and we watched a car drive into an oncoming car and then swerve into a parked car and jump the curb causing quite the accident and scene. The area was full of people and I was stunned when I was the only one who called 911. In addition to that I watched the scene until the cops came from a distance because I was on the opposite side of the intersection, and there were only one or two people who were helping out the people who were in the accident. I was stunned then after the cops came how many people wanted to stay and watch. In reading this section in the book I realized I had witnessed the "bystander problem" in person.

The final thing I want to write about at this moment is the fact that Malcolm was really clever in using Paul Revere as the perfect example of all three of the kind of people who cause a 'Tipping Point' to happen. One thing that I wanted to point out though was the fact that he talked about how Paul knew more people than William Dawes. The only reason I bring this up is because while I believe it to be true that Paul probably knew more people that William it may not be fair to assume that William was not a connector too. He just may not have known people in those towns or areas. Back then I've been led to believe that people were far better with names and remembering people because there was less gadgets like computers or video games to preoccupy your time. Also the entertainment back then involved a lot more social interactions. Let me know what you think!

I'm looking forward to reading the next section soon!

Jason T Gaffney

The Tipping Point: Parts One (And a little bit of the introduction thrown in too!)

So I started reading 'The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference' by, Malcolm Gladwell. As of this point I love it. To be fair I've been meaning to read this book for quite sometime as it has been recommended to me by several people including my mom. She has been thinking about the tipping point for quite awhile because she is a New York Times Bestselling author and as of late the book industry had been struggling with their own 'tipping point.' I'm sure that most of you reading this are familiar with eBooks and eReaders such as the nook or the kindle. The publishers of many of the book houses have been struggling with the eReaders because they don't quite know how this will change their industry. For a lot of authors it is a great thing because now they are able to self publish when in this bad economy many publishers are trying to cut back or are not willing to take on new authors as investments.

That being said I had no idea about the real science behind this theory. Although after having read the first two sections of this book I would more equate 'The Tipping Point' to be more fact than theory. I was really interested in how the book started with the 'Three Rules of Epidemics.' I really liked how this part of the book basically explained how something can go from being in control such as syphilis in the 1990's in Baltimore and then all of a sudden go through the roof and be out of control. It talked about how sometimes all it takes is a slight change in the balance for one side to take power. Like how when the doctors were cut back because of budget, and how because of that suddenly it would be weeks for people to get treated for it and thus became easier to pass to others. Then Malcolm writes about how in addition to that all the people who were most likely to have it originally started in one location, but because they were moved to different housing the disease was able to spread like wildfire.

That theory reminds me a lot about how Florida is dealing with the 'alien invader' problem with owners releasing their pet snakes into the Everglades. The snakes have no natural predators and suddenly they are able to take over the whole area. This is just one type of species that have been released into the wilds of the USA that are now taking over that area due to lack of natural predators.

I also found the 80/20 principle to be really interesting because I've never heard of that before. What did really surprise me was the fact that most of the people who spread STD's were the same people. I had always wondered how diseases never got kept in check and how things like HIV are able to spread and how other diseases like syphilis are still around when they are treatable. I had always felt like well if you get tested and treat them then it should be solved. But then you look at people like Darnell 'Boss Man' McGee and I can now see hoe the 80/20 principal works. He is but one person, but because he doesn't get tested he causes lots of people to get sick. While I like the majority of my friends are vigilant about getting tested and help to prevent them, but we can only do out part as long as people like him are doing their thing.

I also found the AIDS/PCP part of part 1 fascinating. The idea that at one point in time there was a version of AIDS that people could get over, or get better and beat is fascinating. I had hear stories of how in WWII there had been testing with AIDS and that this virus had been around for a lot longer than we thought, but the idea that because it has become a more difficult and deadly strand is both fascinating and terrifying.

Also on one final note in part one was the fact they, in Baltimore, started to take note of where everyone got sick in the city. I was really fascinated to see that in the winter the disease basically stopped for the most part. It really proved the idea that, 'The Tipping Point' happens almost all at once. This was mentioned in the introduction with the crime in NYC during the 1980's and 1990's and then all of a sudden the crime rate dropped because people started to act differently. This is apparent in the Baltimore scenario because people didn't want to go out because it was too cold and thus stopped getting exposed to the disease.

Jason T Gaffney

First Post From My iPhone

So here I am doing a trial run on my iPhone to see if I am tech savvy enough to figure out how to connect these two things together! I think that I figured it out (along with how to connect to twitter!) but only me clicking the post button will tell for sure. So far I've been really fascinated with all of the options out there for blogs and what all of them are capable of doing. I'm probably going to be looking at them all for another several hours to make sure I don't miss anything that would be useful to me.

Introductions

Hi! My name is Jason T Gaffney. I am a 26 year old caucasian gay male currently living in LA. (I originally came from NYC!) This is my first blog post on this blog! I look forward to chatting with all of you! This photo is me and while I look somewhat broody in this photo I can assure you that I am really a bubbly happy-go-lucky person most of the time! See the second photo and thats more what you'll get with me!