In How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be, Cass Sunstein reveals why some individuals become celebrities—and others don’t.

Sunstein has long been at the forefront of behavioral economics. He is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and served as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration. He has authored numerous best sellers, such as Nudge and The World According to Star Wars. In his new book, he explores the roles played by skill, luck, and social processes in the achievement of fame and success—based on recent research on informational cascades, reputation cascades, network effects, and group polarization.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Sunstein discusses how a better understanding of these mechanisms can help businesses make better decisions in marketing, talent management, and innovation – and why the greatest composer of all time may not be J S Bach, but rather Taylor Swift.

Key topics discussed: 

[03:18] How to prove whether or not fame is driven by merit
[06:08] The importance of quality and skill to fame
[09:33] Enduring vs. transient fame
[11:36] The greatest composers of all time: Bach vs. Taylor Swift
[14:44] Social factors driving fame
[19:54] The role of group polarization and network effects
[28:48] Implications for businesses: Marketing, talent, innovation
[33:19] The art of manipulating information cascades

Additional inspirations from Cass Sunstein:

• Thinkers & Ideas: Look Again with Cass Sunstein
• Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There; with Tali Sharot (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2024)
• Nudge; with Richard Thaler (Penguin Books, 2021)
• Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment; with Daniel Kahneman, and Olivier Sibony (Random House Audio, 2021)
• The World According to Star Wars (Dey Street Books, 2016)