42 Lessons from Alan B Krueger’s Rockonomics

Business, Creativity and Life Lessons from the Music Industry

About a year ago, I received a copy of Alan Krueger’s book, Rockonomics, in the mail.

His publisher had sent it my way — one of the many perks of hosting a modestly successful podcast. However, a pitfall of being sent many books is analysis paralysis, and at the time I must have had other learning priorities because Rockonomics found a home on my bookcase without a single page being read.

However, with the COVID-19 enforced shutdown of bookstores in my home city of Melbourne, I went rummaging through said bookcase to find such books that I might have a newfound interest in reading.

And this time, the cover, Rockonomics: What the Music Industry Can Teach Us ABout Economics, absolutely spoke to me. It might be because I recently launched a media company, speaking volumes about the notion that you’ve got to discover books at the right time to truly absorb them, or that when a student is ready a teacher appears.

Whatever the case, I devoured the 300-page book by Krueger — former chief economist of the US Treasury from 2009 to 2010 who, I discovered, sadly took his life in 2019 — in just two evening sittings. Being a massive music fan and entrepreneur might’ve helped.