by thenewgreen

Karen Holtzblatt claims to know what makes things cool. She even has a book out bearing the extremely literal title: What Makes Things Cool? But I am suspicious of anyone who claims to understand what makes things cool and sells his or her know-how to gigantic corporations (in Holtzblatt’s case: LG, Walmart, Nokia, John Deere, and others). In particular, I disagreed with something Holtzblatt wrote in her book: "We all know cool products when we see them." Cool, I think, is learned. We are social creatures, after all, and we look to a select few to help us develop our tastes--which is why we call such people tastemakers.