“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“When something becomes hard to think about, people transfer the discomfort of the thought, to the object of their thinking.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“It is an economic fact that predicting the future is most valuable when everybody thinks you are wrong”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“People gravitate toward products that are bold, but instantly comprehensible: Most Advanced Yet Acceptable--MAYA.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“It begs for a gospel of perseverance through inevitable failure... There is no antidote to the chaos of creative markets. Only the brute doggedness to endure it.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“This long-tail distribution of returns is why it's important to be bold. Big winners pay for so many experiments.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“The mere observation that something is popular, or even that it became so rapidly, is not sufficient to establish that it spread in a manner that resembles a virus. Popularity on the internet is driven by the size of the largest broadcast. Digital blockbusters are not about a million one-to-one moments as much as they are about a few one-to-one-million moments.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“It is an economic fact that predicting the future is most valuable when everybody things you are wrong.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“Quality, it seems, is a necessary, but insufficient attribute for success.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“This sell something familiar, make it surprising. To sell something surprising, make it familiar.”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular“This might be the most important question for every creator and maker in the world: how do you make something new if most people just like what they know? Is it possible to surprise with familiarity?”
Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: Why Things Become Popular