I think Malcolm Gladwell is one of the best "explainers" if not one of the better thinkers we have around today. He does a terrific job explaining the notion of "connectors" on his web site, which he excerpted from The Tipping Point.
The connector, as Gladwell describes them, is the one who knows people and thus facilitates social networks. He explains it a lot better than I do, but essentially, connectors need not be the movers and shakers. Indeed, they are more often the king-makers, the ones who connect the movers and shakers.
His web site has a quick test to see if you are indeed a connector. So that everyone doesn't have to keep scrolling back, I'll simply excerpt him this way:
Various groups have levels of connectivity:
-in a freshman class at CCNY, the average score was 20.96
-at a healthcare conference in NJ, the average score was 39
-random sample of his social circle was 41
The point of being a connector is not necessarily in the raw score, but in where you stand relative to your cohort. With that in mind, have fun with this -- I think it's a blast. And if you haven't bought or read The Tipping Point or Blink yet, I highly recommmend both.
Your old music cannot sustain you through a life, not if you're someone who listens to music every day, at every opportunity. You need input, because pop music is about freshness, about Nelly Furtado and the maddeningly memorable fourth track on a first album by a band you saw on a late-night TV show. And no, that fourth track is not as good as anything on Pet Sounds or Blonde on Blonde or What's Going On, but when was the last time you played Pet Sounds? - Songbook by Nick Hornby
Your old music cannot sustain you through a life, not if you're someone who listens to music every day, at every opportunity. You need input, because pop music is about freshness, about Nelly Furtado and the maddeningly memorable fourth track on a first album by a band you saw on a late-night TV show. And no, that fourth track is not as good as anything on Pet Sounds or Blonde on Blonde or What's Going On, but when was the last time you played Pet Sounds? - Songbook by Nick Hornby
I know at least four people (and often many more) at each of 120 child welfare agencies across the state, countless Eastern Star and church connections, and I scored a FIVE. And yet someone has a job interview pretty high up in a city agency next Tuesday because I connected a [nameonthelist] with a [namenotonthelist]. So phooey to that stoopid test. :-P~~~~~~~~~
__________________ MJ
It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.~ Bono
Your old music cannot sustain you through a life, not if you're someone who listens to music every day, at every opportunity. You need input, because pop music is about freshness, about Nelly Furtado and the maddeningly memorable fourth track on a first album by a band you saw on a late-night TV show. And no, that fourth track is not as good as anything on Pet Sounds or Blonde on Blonde or What's Going On, but when was the last time you played Pet Sounds? - Songbook by Nick Hornby
however, two of the names belong to families with 4 children with one son married and one with a child plus the father, now divorced has a whole new family with a wife and a new daughter.
Another name is a family with 12 kids, of which I know each quite well plus their parents.
Also.. that's a New York phone book. A Manchester, NH phone book would have far more french names and far fewer Jewish names.
George...you should pick up a DC area phone book and make it count for you!
__________________ ''Resolve not to let the defeat of your favorite candidate shatter your faith in America or turn you away from politics. There will be another day. Remember the Red Sox.''
Or the polite, professional "Nice exercise, but I have doubts as to its ultimate validity as a measure of interconnectivity."
__________________ MJ
It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.~ Bono
56 for me too, Elyzabeth. Suppose they are the same ones?
I didn't count multiples from the same families even though the instructions said to. But living in the Midwest, I probably know at least 20 Johnsons (I could only rattle off 4 from the top of my head, so that's what I counted).
We know a lot of people.
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I'm with MJ on this one. Of course, having name-remembrance issues isn't helping me any. But, the names just don't fit where I am. Now, through Leiby, Schmidt, Raifsnider and Spatz in there, and I'm off the charts.
__________________ Salt makes mistakes taste great.
68--but then, that counted an awful lot of people in the theater community with whom my contact has been primarily that I've written about them or attended cast parties with them. Then there were lots of people who are parents in my sons' school whom I know only 'cause I teach their kids. They met the definition of someone that I knew by name, have talked to at least once, and would recognize enough to strike up a future conversation with.
So, um, what is a Maven and a Salesman?
__________________ Bridgette
"There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; religion without sacrifice; politics without principle; science without humanity; business without ethics." --Mahatma Gandhi
It's an interesting article - and activity - but Sara's comment about NY diversity is on target. I scored 17 and am wondering how skewed the results would be toward East Coast residents. It would be interesting to see a geographical distribution of scores.
"If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other." - Carl Shurz, German general and politician
Definite bias in that particular name list. I just finished updating a 200+ name database. I know nearly all those people and many more at my church, scouts, work. Didn't see many names of people I know in there. I know 5 or 6 Smith families. No Smith on the list at all. No Jackson. No Fitzgerald. No Cavanaugh. Not even a Kennedy. What's with that? If you live in Manhattan, maybe it means something. Not in Maryland.
I didn't follow the link but I did read the Tipping Point, so you're likely talking about the phone book test? I LOVED that book. And no I'm not a connector but many of us here are those elusive market mavens (epinions, anyone?).
You and I both reviewed his book, Joubert!
Gladwell has also really helped me in the nonprofit world. Not only from a fundraising/marketing standpoint (connectors are THE people to know . . .I'm searching for his "connector" example now - Lois Weisberg is luckily from Chicago), but also in terms of helping more people understand homelessness. He's got a great article on Gladwell.com that specifically relates to homelessness and the mission of my organization which has helped some of our funders wake up to the realities of the problem.
I heard Gladwell speak at a conference last weekend. I didn't learn anything new (his talk came completely from Blink) but he was a wonderfully entertaining speaker. I had no doubts, since his writing is no less enjoyable.
Several women in the audience proposed to him.
__________________ Stress: What happens when your gut says no and your mouth says, "Of course, I'd be glad to."
I'll give his stuff a read. This board is making my read-list longer than I could have imagined. I like it. At least I feel like my mind is gonig somewhere.
I got a 30 but that's because of the few names I knew were big families (like Elyzabeth.) There were sure a lot of names that I've never heard of before. No Allen, Chandler, Cox, Barney, Birch, Miller, Hathaway, Davis, Moon or Murri, Walker? Throw in a few of those and I would have been off the charts!
My husband who is truly a connector would have done terrible on this. Those must be eastern names.
This test does terribly down here. My own last name is on there, but it's cheating to count your whole family, right?! Other than that, I don't think I know a SINGLE name on his phooey list. There are a couple that I've known in my lifetime, but not now.
And of course there's the minor detail that many of us do not know the last names of many of the others here... (not that my last name would help on any list, since there's only about 20 of us in the whole USA, but still)
__________________ MJ
It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.~ Bono
I'm not sure I agree that there is a geographical bias. This -- the EA version -- was a national cohort. You might well do on a local cohort level because some areas have different ethnic populatons. But Gladwell's point, and I think it's entirely reasonable, is that for national reach (which is what this was about), you need a cross-section of people. If you don't have a heavy Latin influence in your area, you won't score on Latin names, but that is going to severely hamper your ability to be a connector on a national level.
Margo makes an excellent point. Her husband may be the most connected person in their state, but they live in a relatively unpopulated state with little national reach. (Beautiful state, but more people live in my county than live in that state).
The point of being a connector is not how many people you know --- it's how many diverse populations you know. It's not a test of how many friends you have. Sorry if I misrepresented that up front.
It was around this time of the book as I recall that Gladwell discussed the Kevin Bacon Game. The funny thing is that Bacon is not the most connected of all time. Know who is?
Rod Steiger. Why? He was older, appeared in more films than Bacon and crossed genre and generation lines so he worked with more people across a wider array
Your old music cannot sustain you through a life, not if you're someone who listens to music every day, at every opportunity. You need input, because pop music is about freshness, about Nelly Furtado and the maddeningly memorable fourth track on a first album by a band you saw on a late-night TV show. And no, that fourth track is not as good as anything on Pet Sounds or Blonde on Blonde or What's Going On, but when was the last time you played Pet Sounds? - Songbook by Nick Hornby
Just read your review, Meagan. Nice job. I also thought the whole childrens TV section was a bit dry, but still very interesting. The DMA used to sell my name to groups who put on my favorite seminar -- "Marketing to Pre-School Children"
Your old music cannot sustain you through a life, not if you're someone who listens to music every day, at every opportunity. You need input, because pop music is about freshness, about Nelly Furtado and the maddeningly memorable fourth track on a first album by a band you saw on a late-night TV show. And no, that fourth track is not as good as anything on Pet Sounds or Blonde on Blonde or What's Going On, but when was the last time you played Pet Sounds? - Songbook by Nick Hornby
