Overstories are powerful

But what if we are *thisclose* to changing them?

Photo of a tree canopy is by gibblesmash asdf on Unsplash.

I read every book that Malcolm Gladwell writes. (To be more specific, I read his works via audiobook because he is a gifted storyteller and because he has begun including archival content such as interview clips and news reports.) I understand that many people have strong feelings - whether positive or negative - about Gladwell and his particular flavor of pop psychology. I do, though, like that he gives us a lot to think about, and I respect the fact that he’s willing to change his mind.

He does both in his latest work, Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering. In it he not only revisits the book that put him on the map but also addresses recent crises such as Covid and the opioid epidemic and (thankfully) reverses his support for “Broken Windows” policing. What really sucked me into this book was the running theme of overstory, which is “the upper layer of foliage in a forest, and the size and density and height of the overstory affect the behavior and development of every species far below on the forest floor….The overstory is made up of things way up in the air, in many cases outside our awareness. We tend to forget about the overstory because we’re so focused on the life going on in front of and around us. But overstories turn out to be really, really powerful” (51-52).