Read This Book if You Want to Understand How Ideas Spread, Read This Book

What is common knowledge, exactly? And where does it come from?

We all know we should say, “Bless you” when someone sneezes, but why do we do that? How did we learn it? Understanding how information passes through groups can help you make the most of that dynamic with your customers and others. You can learn a lot about this in When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows by Steven Pinker (Scribner, 2025). It’s one of five books Bill Gates calls his “recent favorites” and recommends we all read this winter.

The book takes a close look at how knowledge spreads among people and throughout societies. For example: “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In this Hans Christian Andersen story, con men tell a vain emperor that they’ve made him a suit from cloth that stupid or incompetent people can’t see. The suit doesn’t exist—the supposed tailors are just pretending. But everyone, including the emperor, claims to see the nonexistent clothes rather than expose themselves as stupid or incompetent.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Inc.