Nautilus had a great article a while back on how things get popular[1]: it's more a function of social networks than of the things themselves. The research deta

Nautilus had a great article a while back on how things get popular[1]: it's more a function of social networks than of the things themselves. The research detailed in the article looked at music specifically, but I think the idea generalizes to most anything including hard-to-falsify academic theories. http://nautil.us/issue/5/fame/homo-narrativus-and-the-trouble-with-fame http://nautil.us/issue/5/fame/homo-narrativus-and-the-troubl...