Today, I bought a book on impulse.

I was listening to an interview of an entrepreneur I’m researching. When asked about things that shaped his career, he mentioned a book and how it shaped his thinking—and I immediately bought it. I didn’t look at reviews. I didn’t look at the price. My purchase decision was already made.

I reflected on the purchase later. It wasn’t a biography or framework book. It was a historical book containing the author’s opinion about how past events contributed to boom-and-bust cycles. I wouldn’t normally be excited to buy a book like this, but I was excited about this one. But why?

Simple. It was recommended by someone I deem credible. And that recommendation carried more weight than other factors.

I know that recommendations are how most people buy books. But I hadn’t thought much about it in the context of my book project. I’m thinking about it now, and I think a lot of value can be added to other entrepreneurs if you can show them in a simple way which books credible entrepreneurs found helpful (in addition to all the other cool stuff I want to show them). The information is out there; it’s just not organized in a way that’s easy to use.

Social proof is a proven psychological phenomenon, and deploying it could be a great way to enhance discovery of books by entrepreneurs who’d find them helpful.

I need to think about this more, but those are my preliminary ideas.