In the chap­ter titled “Author’s Note” from *Revenge of the Tip­ping Point: Over­sto­ries, Super­spread­ers, and the Rise of Social Engi­neer­ing*, the author reflects on the jour­ney of his first book, *The Tip­ping Point: How Lit­tle Things Make a Big Dif­fer­ence*, which was pub­lished twen­ty-five years ago. He recalls writ­ing it in his small Chelsea apart­ment, filled with a mix of nerves and excite­ment typ­i­cal of novice authors. He defines *The Tip­ping Point* as “the biog­ra­phy of an idea,” empha­siz­ing that under­stand­ing the emer­gence of trends and phenomena—whether it be fash­ion, crime rates, or cul­tur­al shifts—can be akin to study­ing epi­demics, where ideas and behav­iors spread like virus­es.

Upon its release in 2000, the book’s ini­tial recep­tion was mod­est, with only two atten­dees at his first read­ing. How­ev­er, it soon gained momen­tum, enter­ing the pub­lic con­scious­ness and cement­ing its sig­nif­i­cance with years spent on the *New York Times* best­seller list. Influ­en­tial fig­ures, includ­ing Bill Clin­ton, acknowl­edged its impact, and the term “tip­ping point” became a ver­nac­u­lar touch­stone. The author spec­u­lates that the book res­onat­ed because it emanat­ed a hope­ful mes­sage reflec­tive of a pos­i­tive zeit­geist, as the new mil­len­ni­um brought a sense of opti­mism regard­ing soci­etal issues.

As a quar­ter-cen­tu­ry has passed, the author observes how much he has changed, both per­son­al­ly and in per­spec­tive. He won­ders about some choic­es made in the orig­i­nal book, par­tic­u­lar­ly the inclu­sion of a chap­ter on *Sesame Street* and *Blue’s Clues*, despite lack­ing per­son­al expe­ri­ence with chil­dren at the time. Over the years, his career evolved; he pub­lished oth­er notable works, start­ed a pod­cast, expe­ri­enced fam­i­ly life, and made lifestyle changes.

This chap­ter serves as a pre­lude to a revis­i­ta­tion of *The Tip­ping Point*, approached with a matured lens. The author express­es a desire to delve deep­er into the com­plex­i­ties of social epi­demics, hav­ing grap­pled with unre­solved ques­tions since the book’s ini­tial pub­li­ca­tion. He acknowl­edges that reflect­ing on his past work raised inquiries he had nev­er con­sid­ered, lead­ing him to embark on a new endeav­or, result­ing in *Revenge of the Tip­ping Point*, which seeks to expand upon and explore new the­o­ries sur­round­ing the spread of ideas and behav­iors in today’s world.