Contagious

If there's one word by which I'd have to describe the book Contagious, it would be passable. The content is good enough to have some practical value. The book can provide mild entertainment from the stories Jonah Berger tells. But whether the book can stand the test of time or offer insights you couldn't arrive at on your own is something to consider.

The book revolves around the concept of STEPPS - six principles that describe why ideas catch on and spread. Jonah Berger dissects each principle by providing examples from ads, marketing stories, and some dubious research. These examples are passable enough to support the principles, but I am not convinced they're the formula of success. The author says that "the best part of the STEPPS framework is that anyone can use it. It doesn't require a huge advertising budget, marketing genius or some sort of creativity gene". However, the book did not lift my sense of skepticism on that.

I question whether the book can stand the test of time. Having published the book in early 2010s, Jonah Berger built it around the realities of that time. While I believe the described principles are still valid, they probably require different contexts to fully reflect the world of 2023 and beyond. The viral aspect of an idea stems from the human psychology, which cannot radically change in a decade. However, word of mouth is increasingly moving to social networks and are distilled through algorithms. Mix it with the shortening attention spans thanks to platforms such as TikTok and being tethered to our phones and computers, and the simple framework of STEPPS becomes dated.

Contagious is a passable read both for practical value and entertainment to reinforce the thoughts that you already have about ideas that tend to go viral. Read the book if you must, but don't expect it to have a lasting effect.