A review by atharvalarva
The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási

4.0

Really interesting book, with well organized material. I learned about the author when I took a course in network science, a field that I became really interested in -- so when I stumbled upon this book I knew there would be some really interesting information.

There are lots of case studies and research projects by their team show how success (defined by how the community perceives your contributions) works. It breaks down the variety of network, butterfly, and snowball effects (specifically, preferential attachment) behind success. But there's also important pieces how individual traits: performance, fitness, persistence, and talent - are critical too.

My one gripe with this book is the writing style. I found that it was unnecessarily wordy in a lot of places, reading almost like a stuffy college application essay (tons of fancy adjectives and random anecdotes inserted for no real reason). At times I felt like the author just learned what adjectives are and what a thesaurus at the same time.

A great read overall.