You're Probably Going About Networking Entirely The Wrong Way
Networking is a time-honored tradition. You
go to a conference or other event, mix it up, meet new people and expand your
circle. Hopefully, one of these random connections will be fruitful and
lead to a new opportunity that will make you a richer, more fulfilled person.
Yet network science shows that there is
enormous potential much closer to home—the friends of our friends and their
friends as well. There is, in fact a teeming mass—thousands of people—who
are not random at all, but no more than a few social hops away and many are
likely to be valuable connections. If you want to get more out of
networking, start with them.
Fooled By Randomness
Randomness has always had a magical quality to
it, which is how Las Vegas grew from a small town into the middle of the desert
into a thriving, glittering metropolis. With roll of the dice or deal of
a card, lady luck can smile on you and change your fate. So it’s not surprising
that we often approach networking the same way.
There is also some scientific basis for believing
that you could benefit from random connections. In 1959, the great
mathematician Paul Erdős and his collaborator Alfréd Rényi showed
that random links are incredibly efficient at connecting networks.
What’s more, they also showed that random links perform even better as
networks get bigger.
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