The mechanics of word of mouth

Last weekend, I saw The Hoax, with Richard Gere. It's a fantastic movie, one of the best I've seen in a while. As soon as it ended, I had a compulsion to tell you about it. So I sat down and had a long talk with myself about why.

Why was it so important to me to tell other people? It's not a movie that will make the world a better place. It won't increase my reputation or give me a sense of power to be able to tell people about it. So why?

I don't know. It's just a really good movie.

Sometimes, we worry so much about tracking and selfish actions and mechanics that we ignore the biggest factor: people like to talk about stuff.

Which leads to this terrific commentary about the #1 song in America. Irony alert: it's tongue in cheek. My guess is that listeners on the radio today didn't get it. I'm glad to say I did.

Often, something is popular just because it's popular.