Tipping point

The term „tipping point‟ in its most basic meaning refers to a critical point when unprecedented changes occur rapidly with irreversible effect. The political scientist Morton Grodzins in 1957 in his sociological studies on racial segregation to describe the critical threshold at which point the white population would leave an area where more and more black people were present.

Grodzins studied integrating American neighborhoods in the early 1960s. He discovered that most of the white families remained in the neighborhood as long as the comparative number of black families remained very small. But, at a certain point, when "one too many" black families arrived, the remaining white families would move out en masse in a process known as white flight. He called that moment the "tipping point".

The term was popularized in application to daily life by Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 bestselling book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

Changes are not continuous, and their effects do not necessarily depend on their intensity. Sometimes small changes in just one parameter cause the shape and dynamics of the whole system to change. That's basically the message of the book Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. The term is based on an ancient saying that presumed black swans did not exist – a saying that became reinterpreted to teach a different lesson after black swans were discovered in the wild.