The New York Times, which probably is quite sincerely bewildered by the widespread belief that it has a liberal tilt, recently ran this headline: CRIME KEEPS FALLING, BUT PRISONS KEEP ON FILLING. The “but” is a telltale sign of the mentality that produced this version of the Good Samaritan story for sociologists: “A man was attacked and left bleeding in a ditch. Two sociologists passed by and one said to the other, ‘We must find the man who did this—he needs help.’”
In 1974, a Harvard sociologist made a seemingly unremarkable discovery. It is, in fact, who you know. His study asked several hundred white-collar workers how they’d landed their jobs. More than half credited a “personal connection.” Duh. But then it got interesting: The researcher, Mark Granovetter, dug deeper and discovered that four-fifths of these backdoor hires barely knew their benefactors. As it turns out, close friends are great for road trips, intimate dinners, and the occasional interest-free loan, but they suck for job leads and blind dates—they know the same people you do. In other words, it’s not so much who you know, but who you vaguely know. Granovetter called the phenomenon “the strength of weak ties.” He had discovered the human node. –Jeff Howe
The most important person you know is someone you haven’t met. –Clay Shirky
