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How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be Audiobook
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It's hard to imagine our world without its stars and celebrity geniuses—they become a part of our culture and history, seeming permanent and preordained. But as Cass Sunstein shows in this startling book, that is far from the case. Focusing on both famous and forgotten (or simply overlooked) artists and luminaries in music, literature, business, science, politics, and other fields, he explores why some individuals become famous and others don't and offers a new understanding of the role of greatness, luck, and contingency in the achievement of fame.
First, Sunstein examines recent research—on informational cascades, power laws, network effects, and group polarization—to probe the question of how people become famous. He explores what ends up in the history books, in the great religious texts, and in the literary canon—and how that changes radically over time. He delves into the rich and entertaining stories of a diverse cast of famous characters, from John Keats, William Blake, and Jane Austen to Bob Dylan, Ayn Rand, and Stan Lee—as well as John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
How to Become Famous takes you on a fun, captivating, and at times profound journey that will forever change your perspective on the latest celebrity's "fifteen minutes," the nature of memory, success and failure in business, and our enduring fascination with fame.
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"“A book that could also be titled Tales to Astonish. Cass Sunstein looks, mouth agape, at examples of those on whom fortune has smiled, as well as at examples of those who have inexplicably been denied its favor, connecting the dots all the while. A fun, potent, and vital examination.”"
— Howard Fishman, author of To Anyone Who Ever Asks
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“A tour de force of social scientific observation about the nature of fame, its mechanisms, and how it can end up unfairly distributed.”
— Tyler Cowen, professor of economics, George Mason University -
“The book won’t tell you how to become famous, but it will help you understand fame—and its sibling, success—in a radically new way. If you read and understand this book, the world will never look the same to you again.”
— Duncan Watts, Stevens University professor, University of Pennsylvania
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About Cass R. Sunstein
Cass R. Sunstein has written many articles and books, including Simpler: The Future of Government and Wiser: Getting beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter. He is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, where he is the founder and director of the program on behavioral Eeonomics and public policy. He is by far the most cited law professor in the United States. From 2009 to 2012 he served in the Obama administration as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He has testified before congressional committees, appeared on national television and radio shows, been involved in constitution-making and law-reform activities in a number of nations.