Why do some ideas become popular while others remain unknown? From the birth of Impressionism to the future of Facebook, from humble designers selling on Etsy to the origins of Star Wars, addressing all these topics and more, Senior Editor The Atlantic Derek Thompson explores in detail the hidden mechanisms of cultural development and reveals the secrets of creating mega-successful projects. “This book is about hits, those few products and ideas that achieve exceptional fame and commercial success in popular culture and media. Its main thesis is that, even with the huge number of songs, TV shows, blockbusters, Internet memes and mobile applications appearing, as it sometimes seems, out of nowhere, several factors influence this cultural chaos: the psychology of the people who love what what they like; social networks through which ideas spread; and the economics of markets for cultural products. There's a way for people to engineer hits, and just as important, there's a way for other people to know when popularity is artificially created." (Derek Thompson)