There’s much more science in this than I initially expected. It turns out ordered networks with a small degree of randomness become small-work networks. This is why your acquaintances turn out to be more important in job searches and finding new opportunities than close friends.
DON’T SEND ME AN EMAIL anymore…
1. Do not send it directly to me unless you know me.
2. Send the email to someone you have met IN PERSON and know on a first name basis AND THEY KNOW YOU.
3. Make the subject line ‘Six Degrees of Veritasium’
4. Explain that you’re trying to get this email to me and ask them to forward it on to me (only if they know me IRL) or someone they know who might know me.
5. If your email reaches me by Sept. 1, 2015 I will email you back and ask for your address so I can send you a postcard.
Animations in this video by The Lyosacks: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLyosacks
There are some great books on this topic:
Duncan Watts, Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Linkds: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else
And here are articles I referred to:
Milgram’s small world experiment: http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/papers/others/1969/travers1969.pdf
http://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/milgram67smallworld.pdf
Granovetter, Strength of Weak Ties:
https://sociology.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/the_strength_of_weak_ties_and_exch_w-gans.pdf