Revenge of the Tipping Point is Malcolm Gladwell's sequel to his previous book, The Tipping Point. In some sense these books should be read as entertainment, not necessarily a science book. On the other hand, there was a lot in this book I enjoyed reading about. For instance, the huge differences in states suffering from the opioid epidemic can be traced to a law requiring opioids to be prescribed on a special prescription pad that maintains a record that has to be retained. That caused doctors in those states to be more cautious about prescribing opioids and thus reduced the intensity of the epidemic in those states. I don't remember reading about that in any other source.
There's a huge section in the book about why Ivy League schools are heavy on sports recruitment. It lets them select the ethnic/wealth composition of their intake classes by emphasizing sports that are expensive or exclusive to wealthy schools (lacrosse and sailing come to mind). I'm sure this is documented elsewhere but I enjoyed Gladwell's way of telling the story.
What’s special about really good tennis players is that the only way to be a really good tennis player is to come from a wealthy family and live near a country club and have at least one parent with sufficient time on their hands to drive you all over the country for tournaments and handle the acquisition and management of the small army of coaches, trainers, physical therapists, and tutors you need to be successful. (kindle loc 2223)
Less interesting is the section on bank robberies as well as the section on COVID19 which doesn't cover new ground. Nevertheless, it's a short book, easy to read, and entertaining. That's a sweet combination that makes it easy to recommend.
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