Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"Imitating recent successes is a game that everybody knows how to play. But seeing the next big thing before anybody else sees it is far more valuable... It means being a little bit wrong at just the right time."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"It is not merely the feeling that something is familiar. It is one step beyond that. It is something new, challenging, or surprising that opens a door into a feeling of comfort, meaning, or familiarity. It is called an aesthetic aha."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"Initially [my favorite books] seem to immerse me in another life, but ultimately they immerse me in me; I am looking through the window into another person’s home, but it is my face that I see in the reflection."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"In the psychology of aesthetics, there is a name for the moment between the anxiety of confronting something new and the satisfying click of understanding it. It is called an 'aesthetic aha."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"The line from psychologists is, if you’ve seen it before, it hasn’t killed you yet."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"Posting dramatic charts or funny pictures is good and giving people smart reasons to believe what they already think is great."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"The trick is learning to frame your new ideas as tweaks of old ideas, to mix a little fluency with a little disfluency—to make your audience see the familiarity behind the surprise."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"Some consumers buy products not because they are ‘better” in any way, but simply because they are popular. What they’re buying is not just a product, but also a piece of popularity itself."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"Cultural products will spread faster and wider when everybody can see what everybody else is doing. It suggests that the future of many hit-making markets will be fully open, radically transparent, and very, very unequal."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"In all sorts of markets—music, film, art, and politics—the future of popularity will be harder to predict as the broadcast power of radio and television democratizes and the channels of exposure grow.... The gatekeepers had their day. Now there are simply too many gates to keep."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

"People have all day to talk about what makes them ordinary. It turns out that they want to share what makes them weird."

Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction