R & R (part 1)

"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

Prolouge
Gladwell has used two examples through both of these reading: one positive and one negative. In his prolouge he used the example of the Hush Puppies popularity increase. He stated that the rise in popularity of these shoes was because some kids in Soho, wearing the shoes when no one else would, just so happen to catch the eye of fashion designers who liked them and wanted to use them in their collection. Because the fashion industry endorsed these shoes, they became popluar across the country. And because of this endorsement, the producers of Hush Puppies were able to come out of their economic slump. This was a positive impact of an epidemic.
After that example, Gladwell talks about the rise in crime rates in New York. Over a period of five years crime rates had dropped a total of 64.3%. Before this drop, the police force was lacking and serious crimes soared to 626,182, just in 1992. But due a change in policing, crime rates dropped dramatically.
These two examples are examples of the Three Rules of Epedimics. One is contagiousness, two is that little changes have big effects, and three is that it did not happen gradually over time but all at once in a short period of time. The rise in popularity of Hush Puppies and the rise of the Anti-crime movement in New York both spread quickly and increased rapidly in a short period of time.