How Ideas Grow - Nathan Baschez - Every

tags:: #source/article Psychology Sensemaking on/culture
author:: Nathan Baschez Every.to

Many narratives spread in a self-perpetuating matter: network effects.

For example: everyone talks about AI, there's more money, there's more development, it gets better, and more people talk about it.

Ideas have value intrinsically and also due to network effects. These dimensions are orthogonal:

• Crony Beliefs (e.g., flat earth theory) have no intrinsic merit but believed solely because of the social value
• Merit Beliefs have a lot of intrinsic merit and are believed even though there's no social value

Grow new ideas by solving the cold start problem

The Cold Start Problem that is much-investigated in the startup world, can be very useful across many areas of life because a lot more things than you might think have network effects.

• Starting a career is about building a reputation, i.e., a narrative about yourself. The more people believe it, the more opportunities you get to prove yourself, the more you can move ahead quickly.
• Actors and musicians are popular in part because they are popular. People like to hear familiar songs and see familiar faces.
• Crowded restaurants and bars feel “alive,” which draws a crowd. Plus, people like to go to cool places that are well known.