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
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