Six degrees of separation

A key idea in networking is that the world of

social relationships is really a lot smaller than

we think. How long a chain does it take to con-

nect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary

person anywhere in the world? Approximately

six people. This is the famous six degrees of

separation idea initially researched by psy-

chologist Stanley Milgram. Milgram asked for a

message to be passed from randomly selected

people in Kansas and Nebraska to a particular

target person in Boston who was completely

unknown to the initial message recipient. By

using a chain of acquaintances, it took only an

average of 5.5 intermediaries to successfully

deliver the message to the target. Weak ties

can get difficult jobs done.

In his best-selling book The Tipping Point,

Malcolm Gladwell argues that you can boost

your six degrees’ chances of success if one or

more of the people you interface with is what

he calls a connector — an extraordinary hub of

a person enmeshed in large networks of con-

tacts and friends. Connectors can boost your

movement along the human web, whereas

others may slow things down. So pay particular

attention to any well-connected people in your

social network — they’re your connectors.