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The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors
A fresh and intriguing look at how our "hidden positions" in various social structures, or human networks, shape how we think and behave, how our very outlook on life is formed--by a distinguished professor of economics at Stanford University.
Inequality, social immobility, and political polarization are but a few crucial phenomena driven by the inevitability of social structures. Social structures determine who has power and influence, can explain why people fail to assimilate basic facts, and can help us understand patterns of contagion--from the spread of disease to financial crises. Despite their primary role in shaping our lives, human networks are often overlooked when we try to account for our most important political and economic behaviors and trends. This book illuminates the complexity of the social networks in which we are positioned, sometimes unwittingly, and can help us to better undertstand why we are who we are as individuals.
Ranging across disciplines--psychology, behavioral economics, sociology, and business--and rich with historical analogies and anecdotes, The Human Network provides an eye-opening and fascinating account of what can drive success or failure in life.
Inequality, social immobility, and political polarization are but a few crucial phenomena driven by the inevitability of social structures. Social structures determine who has power and influence, can explain why people fail to assimilate basic facts, and can help us understand patterns of contagion--from the spread of disease to financial crises. Despite their primary role in shaping our lives, human networks are often overlooked when we try to account for our most important political and economic behaviors and trends. This book illuminates the complexity of the social networks in which we are positioned, sometimes unwittingly, and can help us to better undertstand why we are who we are as individuals.
Ranging across disciplines--psychology, behavioral economics, sociology, and business--and rich with historical analogies and anecdotes, The Human Network provides an eye-opening and fascinating account of what can drive success or failure in life.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published March 3, 2019
About the author
Matthew O. Jackson
11 books34 followersMatthew O. Jackson is a professor of Economics at Stanford University. He has been researching social and economic networks for more than twenty-five years.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
March 13, 2020
Lesson of this book: Don‘t worry if you don‘t have any friends - you‘re less likely to get infections and diseases
Just kidding, nevertheless I found it really interesting how the author got into diseases and how they spread, especially looking at the current situation, that fits the topic.
Here are some notes I took while reading:
Chapter 2 - Power and Influence: Central Positions in Networks
- To have power it’s always best to be uniquely positioned to coordinate others. Being the bridge between others and being able to do special favours (like the Godfather for example) will give you a power position in the network.
- People can still be influential if they only have few contacts and networks, if those contacts are influential themselves
- Rich gets richer concept -> more central people are easier to find/meet and therefore make new friends faster
Chapter 3 - Difussion and Contagion
- over half of the people of an american high school (288 people) are connected romantically and/or sexually to each other even though each individual only has had on average 1 or 2 partners (during the course of 18 months) -> this explains how fast and wide a sexual disease can spread even though individuals aren‘t sleeping with a lot of people, but they are part of the big network (of course this is only a study done in one high school, but it‘s more about the basic principle)
- interesting excours about the plague in the middle ages
Chapter 5 - Homophily: Houses Divided
Homophily = you like people that are the same as you and are more likely to spend time with them, marry them and befriend them (gender, race, income)
- In an american high school friendships are more than 15 times more likely between the same race than across race
- In a study 60 % of Women named a Woman their closest friend and 90 % of Men named a Man their closest friend
Chapter 6 - Immobility and Inequality
- There are Income differences between students who studied the same at the same college because of social connections of the parents
- even low paid side jobs (e.g. in a bakery or recycling) hire almost entirely by word of mouth (because of bad expieriences with random people from the street). This is true for where I live you‘re very likely to get your side job/student job because one of your friends or siblings work there or because your neighbour knows someone there etc, at least thats true for all of my previous jobs and my friends jobs
- 50-75 % to jobs are found trough contacs
-> „like it or not your fate is closely connected to that of your friends. If they are well situated they can help you“
- small acquaintances also count - the person who sat next to you in history class could be the person you bump into on the street and puts you in touch with your new employer when they hear you are between jobs
- only 1/6 of jobs found through contacts come from strong ties, the rest from medium or weak ties
All in all an interesting book, a bit repetitive towards the end, but that‘s often the case with non-fiction.
Just kidding, nevertheless I found it really interesting how the author got into diseases and how they spread, especially looking at the current situation, that fits the topic.
Here are some notes I took while reading:
Chapter 2 - Power and Influence: Central Positions in Networks
- To have power it’s always best to be uniquely positioned to coordinate others. Being the bridge between others and being able to do special favours (like the Godfather for example) will give you a power position in the network.
- People can still be influential if they only have few contacts and networks, if those contacts are influential themselves
- Rich gets richer concept -> more central people are easier to find/meet and therefore make new friends faster
Chapter 3 - Difussion and Contagion
- over half of the people of an american high school (288 people) are connected romantically and/or sexually to each other even though each individual only has had on average 1 or 2 partners (during the course of 18 months) -> this explains how fast and wide a sexual disease can spread even though individuals aren‘t sleeping with a lot of people, but they are part of the big network (of course this is only a study done in one high school, but it‘s more about the basic principle)
- interesting excours about the plague in the middle ages
Chapter 5 - Homophily: Houses Divided
Homophily = you like people that are the same as you and are more likely to spend time with them, marry them and befriend them (gender, race, income)
- In an american high school friendships are more than 15 times more likely between the same race than across race
- In a study 60 % of Women named a Woman their closest friend and 90 % of Men named a Man their closest friend
Chapter 6 - Immobility and Inequality
- There are Income differences between students who studied the same at the same college because of social connections of the parents
- even low paid side jobs (e.g. in a bakery or recycling) hire almost entirely by word of mouth (because of bad expieriences with random people from the street). This is true for where I live you‘re very likely to get your side job/student job because one of your friends or siblings work there or because your neighbour knows someone there etc, at least thats true for all of my previous jobs and my friends jobs
- 50-75 % to jobs are found trough contacs
-> „like it or not your fate is closely connected to that of your friends. If they are well situated they can help you“
- small acquaintances also count - the person who sat next to you in history class could be the person you bump into on the street and puts you in touch with your new employer when they hear you are between jobs
- only 1/6 of jobs found through contacts come from strong ties, the rest from medium or weak ties
All in all an interesting book, a bit repetitive towards the end, but that‘s often the case with non-fiction.
August 6, 2020
If you thought this was a self-development book on motivating you to get better position in terms of networking, this is not that book. Well, not quite. Still, a lot of big ideas to implement.
This is where an economics writing (for sure, written by an economist/economics professor of Stanford University) collides with social issues of networking, ranging from making friends and dating and choosing college, to contagion of disease, to banking system and world's socio-economic inequality.
As an International Political Economy student, I truly enjoyed this book. I've learned a lot from how centrality and influence of our friends really matter, how humans used to network historically, Ivy League and its privilege, microfinancing, Chinese guanxi, and overall how our social positions could be analyzed through data used in economics. Jackson also provides quite a number of charts and graphs on how the nodes of networking work.
His style of writing is actually very simple and he brought several interesting illustration to complement. Considering how this book is actually deeply academics, he wrote it in a style where the readers can easily understand his ideas.
I recommend this book if you enjoy reading about social issues and economy :)
This is where an economics writing (for sure, written by an economist/economics professor of Stanford University) collides with social issues of networking, ranging from making friends and dating and choosing college, to contagion of disease, to banking system and world's socio-economic inequality.
As an International Political Economy student, I truly enjoyed this book. I've learned a lot from how centrality and influence of our friends really matter, how humans used to network historically, Ivy League and its privilege, microfinancing, Chinese guanxi, and overall how our social positions could be analyzed through data used in economics. Jackson also provides quite a number of charts and graphs on how the nodes of networking work.
His style of writing is actually very simple and he brought several interesting illustration to complement. Considering how this book is actually deeply academics, he wrote it in a style where the readers can easily understand his ideas.
I recommend this book if you enjoy reading about social issues and economy :)
June 22, 2019
The book is a wonderful introduction to Network Theory. I really liked how the author went about building intuition through examples and diagrams and didn’t get into the very technical details. However, even without the technical details, the book does a really good job of explaining some very key concepts.
While the importance of networks may seem obvious and commonsensical, the book provides a structured way in which we can think about these issues.
I really liked the point about how stronger networks are potentially feeding higher levels of polarisation through homophily. It didn’t strike me that the views of my network could potentially be my own views being double counted.
Yet, networks can also be used for good, as the example of microfinance has shown. Overall, this book gives a very good introduction to a fascinating topic: Human Networks.
While the importance of networks may seem obvious and commonsensical, the book provides a structured way in which we can think about these issues.
I really liked the point about how stronger networks are potentially feeding higher levels of polarisation through homophily. It didn’t strike me that the views of my network could potentially be my own views being double counted.
Yet, networks can also be used for good, as the example of microfinance has shown. Overall, this book gives a very good introduction to a fascinating topic: Human Networks.
April 20, 2019
The book is a description of how human network patterns determine our power, opinions, opportunities, behaviors, and accomplishments. Emphasising on well-connectedness, the author is giving you a notion how you found yourself in the place you’re currently in due to networks you hold. Human mind tends to look for coincidences, and this book deals with it on a global scale. Jackson’s examples are elegantly built, many times returning to his pro-vaccination view.
I encourage to read this book, because it makes you think and rethink how much of your life is influenced by the networks you hold.
I encourage to read this book, because it makes you think and rethink how much of your life is influenced by the networks you hold.
February 17, 2020
This was a very informative book. Detailed enough to really get into the subject, and short enough not to be daunting. It's not a light reading, but it definitely is worth a read.
January 10, 2022
It took me awhile to read it because there was so much new information to me. I was assigned chapters of this for my grad class, but wanted to read it all! This was written prior to the COVID pandemic but explained its possibility in Chapter 3: Diffusion and Contagion. After defining the basics of network theory, Jackson uses each chapter to explore the dynamics of network analysis given different human contexts. My favorite chapters were 7 and 8: The Wisdom and Folly of the Crowd, and The Influence of our Friends and Local Network Structures. These helped me understand the diffusion of social and political movements like the shocking number of people on the Anti-CRT bus who are showing up at school board meetings with their racist and homophobic/transphobic remarks. This book sharpened my lens on reform strategies that will work (or won't) due to network characteristics and contextual externalities.
March 25, 2019
This is the first book I have read that was written by an economist, at least knowingly. How have I managed to get this far in life without knowing how broad and interesting a subject economics is. There are numerous examples of societal conditions such as segregation, financial immobility and polarization that I have witnessed without an appreciation how predictable the behaviors and situations are, given certain circumstances. With this knowledge we may seek out solutions to combat these injustices.
May 25, 2020
It's mostly chitchat vaguely connected to the science of networks, the few interesting ideas are drowned in useless historical/media trivia, I guess the author is trying to dumb it down a lot but it didn't work with me. A few of the charts are interesting but it's all kind of obvious and the pseudo-inspirational quotes are really painful, it feels like reading a 150p long NYT article: you already know everything that's in it.
December 24, 2019
The hopeful concepts of the book: we have less poverty and less wars globally.
The truth of the book: our families are more fragmented geographically.
The new word: homophily, something to be aware of and careful about. It means the tendency to gravitate to "like" people.
The interesting thing: Connections, for the most part, are hugely beneficial. Keep making them!
The truth of the book: our families are more fragmented geographically.
The new word: homophily, something to be aware of and careful about. It means the tendency to gravitate to "like" people.
The interesting thing: Connections, for the most part, are hugely beneficial. Keep making them!
April 12, 2019
Fascinating, I had the chance to be a remote pupil of Pr. Jackson (really missing the "Hi Folks!" ) and this book sums up pretty much what we've learned.
In fact, it is less technical, and has practically no equations inside, unlike the course on ERGMs ( Exponential Random Graph Models) and SERGMs (Statistical Exponential Random Graph Models) ...
It is a good starting point for anyone curious about network's theory, to familiarize with the plethora of cases where network theory proved to be helpful, and what's more interesting is that the majority of cases stated inside the book were real research subjects that he worked on or collaborated in.
Content aside, I think that I agree with Sara and that me too "I loved the descriptions of the concepts and ideas that came at the beginning of each chapter, before the technical presentation."
The references were ultra exhaustive... #ReferencesGoals
In fact, it is less technical, and has practically no equations inside, unlike the course on ERGMs ( Exponential Random Graph Models) and SERGMs (Statistical Exponential Random Graph Models) ...
It is a good starting point for anyone curious about network's theory, to familiarize with the plethora of cases where network theory proved to be helpful, and what's more interesting is that the majority of cases stated inside the book were real research subjects that he worked on or collaborated in.
Content aside, I think that I agree with Sara and that me too "I loved the descriptions of the concepts and ideas that came at the beginning of each chapter, before the technical presentation."
The references were ultra exhaustive... #ReferencesGoals
June 16, 2019
This book is a blisteringly fast-paced, high level survey of an area of economic theory that has growing influence and is largely driven by people like Jackson and Kleinberg. This is a particularly strong area of study for Cornell's Economics and Information Science programs. Although economists typically consider Network Economics to be heterodox or interdisciplinary, it has grown to meet the challenges of accounting for externalities in spaces where formerly externalities were phantoms of assumed linear market structures.
This book provides something of an interest especially to economists, information scientists, and communications scholars. Although this book is very high level and gives case after case of successes of the methods of networks, it also offers an interesting take on how people can organize (and in some cases can't organize) to better their lives in a way that is easy to digest.
Also this book serves as a who's-who for theory concepts related to the field. But yet there seems to be some missing parts. This book is a particularly political one in that it hides some names of real importance to the field. This is an attempt to align network economic theory as a counterpart to neoclassical economic theory and Keynesian approaches to policy: that is to say, more politically centerist arguments about the goals of network economic arguments. What it does not come as close to mentioning is the fundamentals that come from Hayek, and the following neo-Austrian movement in modeling for limited information problems in decision making. Although this book has been highly recommended by Mechanism Design theorists Maskin and Myerson, this does not come an inch closer to mentioning their fellow Nobel Laurette, Leonid Hurwicz or his student, Myrna Wooders (at Vanderbilt), who is extremely well cited in areas of networked policy and game theory methods. This seems to be somewhat of an oversight, or perhaps an explicit political gesture.
Otherwise, I am very pleased with this book as a consumer/informational level read that offers very informed takes on where economics is moving in terms of theory in a highly informational world.
This book provides something of an interest especially to economists, information scientists, and communications scholars. Although this book is very high level and gives case after case of successes of the methods of networks, it also offers an interesting take on how people can organize (and in some cases can't organize) to better their lives in a way that is easy to digest.
Also this book serves as a who's-who for theory concepts related to the field. But yet there seems to be some missing parts. This book is a particularly political one in that it hides some names of real importance to the field. This is an attempt to align network economic theory as a counterpart to neoclassical economic theory and Keynesian approaches to policy: that is to say, more politically centerist arguments about the goals of network economic arguments. What it does not come as close to mentioning is the fundamentals that come from Hayek, and the following neo-Austrian movement in modeling for limited information problems in decision making. Although this book has been highly recommended by Mechanism Design theorists Maskin and Myerson, this does not come an inch closer to mentioning their fellow Nobel Laurette, Leonid Hurwicz or his student, Myrna Wooders (at Vanderbilt), who is extremely well cited in areas of networked policy and game theory methods. This seems to be somewhat of an oversight, or perhaps an explicit political gesture.
Otherwise, I am very pleased with this book as a consumer/informational level read that offers very informed takes on where economics is moving in terms of theory in a highly informational world.
October 15, 2020
Seems fitting to read this book during a pandemic. Overall I enjoy the book and the diverse examples provided.
How does a person’s position in a network determine their influence and power?
What systemic errors do we make when forming opinions based on what we learn from friends?
How do splits in our social networks feed inequality, immobility, and polarization?
How is globalization changing international conflict and wars?
How to measure a person’s position in a network:
1. Popularity - degree centrality
2. Connections - Eigenvector centrality; connect to well-positioned friends
3. Reach - Diffusion centrality; how fast to spread and receive the information
4. Brokerage and bridging - betweenness centrality; must others interact through this person, connecting disconnected groups
A vaccine doesn’t need to be fully effective or to reach every individual in order to avoid widespread contagion. It just needs to bring the reproduction number below one.
Measles has one of the highest numbers with an R number of 15 in populations without immunity. Covid-19 is about 3.
The more popular you are, the higher your risk of exposure to contagions.
3 reasons why US Treasury and Fed didn’t bail out Lehman
1. Send a message that large private companies couldn’t all expect bailouts
2. Critical people didn’t have the info they need to predict the consequences of letting Lehman fail.
3. Unclear what the fed could do by law
Financial network can become a contagion
- economies of scale and scope give bigger banks more advantages so business tends to focus among the largest banks
- Banks choose overly risky investment and become insolvent
- Banks focus its business with a few partners and thus leaves itself exposed to the risk of its partners going bankrupt.
Estimated about 5-20% of minority population moves in to cause “white flight”. However, the study doesn’t take into account people might move in anticipation of others leaving the neighborhood.
High levels of segregation is incompatible with high GDP, but doesn’t mean countries with low levels of segregation have high GDP. Greater segregation provokes lower trust between people and makes special-interest political parties, which can lead to more divisive politics and less effective government.
Ivy League students tend to come from affluent families. Professional parents speak more words than welfare parents to their children, 2k vs 600. Men have more connections thus end up with higher wages than women, despite women have slightly higher education levels on average.
Homophily limits Information and opportunities flow in community, leading to systematic underinvestment in education among lower-income households. Eg college education and financial aid.
Unlike other species, humans can grasp abstract concepts combined with our ability to communicate them to others.
When we have the same opinion as others, we can get over confident and extensive bias aka double counting. our friends told from the same source but we count them separately. Eg movie recommendations.
Multiple equilibria = mutual reinforcement effects that overpower our individual tendencies. Eg Gangnam style video had >1B views.
Clustering coefficient = average of all the people in a network, the fraction of your friends who are friends with each other. Eg referral programs.
Embeddedness = number of friends in common that a pair of people have. Eg you can identify someone’s partner based on their mutual connection.
By three methods we may learn wisdom: (1) by reflection which is the noblest; (2) by imitation which is the easiest; (3) by experience which is the bitterest. Confucius.
Globalization increases trade and reduces wars. Grow the economies and the regional trade networks, promote trade between potential adversaries to reduce wars.
Cons of globalization: (1) fake news - need to provide incentives to collect and spread accurate, deep information, while filter better too (2) polarization, immobility, inequality.
How does a person’s position in a network determine their influence and power?
What systemic errors do we make when forming opinions based on what we learn from friends?
How do splits in our social networks feed inequality, immobility, and polarization?
How is globalization changing international conflict and wars?
How to measure a person’s position in a network:
1. Popularity - degree centrality
2. Connections - Eigenvector centrality; connect to well-positioned friends
3. Reach - Diffusion centrality; how fast to spread and receive the information
4. Brokerage and bridging - betweenness centrality; must others interact through this person, connecting disconnected groups
A vaccine doesn’t need to be fully effective or to reach every individual in order to avoid widespread contagion. It just needs to bring the reproduction number below one.
Measles has one of the highest numbers with an R number of 15 in populations without immunity. Covid-19 is about 3.
The more popular you are, the higher your risk of exposure to contagions.
3 reasons why US Treasury and Fed didn’t bail out Lehman
1. Send a message that large private companies couldn’t all expect bailouts
2. Critical people didn’t have the info they need to predict the consequences of letting Lehman fail.
3. Unclear what the fed could do by law
Financial network can become a contagion
- economies of scale and scope give bigger banks more advantages so business tends to focus among the largest banks
- Banks choose overly risky investment and become insolvent
- Banks focus its business with a few partners and thus leaves itself exposed to the risk of its partners going bankrupt.
Estimated about 5-20% of minority population moves in to cause “white flight”. However, the study doesn’t take into account people might move in anticipation of others leaving the neighborhood.
High levels of segregation is incompatible with high GDP, but doesn’t mean countries with low levels of segregation have high GDP. Greater segregation provokes lower trust between people and makes special-interest political parties, which can lead to more divisive politics and less effective government.
Ivy League students tend to come from affluent families. Professional parents speak more words than welfare parents to their children, 2k vs 600. Men have more connections thus end up with higher wages than women, despite women have slightly higher education levels on average.
Homophily limits Information and opportunities flow in community, leading to systematic underinvestment in education among lower-income households. Eg college education and financial aid.
Unlike other species, humans can grasp abstract concepts combined with our ability to communicate them to others.
When we have the same opinion as others, we can get over confident and extensive bias aka double counting. our friends told from the same source but we count them separately. Eg movie recommendations.
Multiple equilibria = mutual reinforcement effects that overpower our individual tendencies. Eg Gangnam style video had >1B views.
Clustering coefficient = average of all the people in a network, the fraction of your friends who are friends with each other. Eg referral programs.
Embeddedness = number of friends in common that a pair of people have. Eg you can identify someone’s partner based on their mutual connection.
By three methods we may learn wisdom: (1) by reflection which is the noblest; (2) by imitation which is the easiest; (3) by experience which is the bitterest. Confucius.
Globalization increases trade and reduces wars. Grow the economies and the regional trade networks, promote trade between potential adversaries to reduce wars.
Cons of globalization: (1) fake news - need to provide incentives to collect and spread accurate, deep information, while filter better too (2) polarization, immobility, inequality.
April 13, 2022
Disclaimer: This review is written by a fellow economic theorist, therefore could be biased (pun intended).
This is a phenomenal work by a phenomenal economist. IMHO--although it may get a bit technical at times for general audience--this is a must-read work in network theory, which is a subfield of microeconomic theory (or more specifically, game theory).
My three favorite essays are:
1. Immobility and Inequality: Network Feedback and Poverty Traps
2. The Wisdom and Folly of the Crowd
3. Globalization: Our Changing Networks
Why can’t money buy you mobility? “The Human Network” is most fascinating and convincing in addressing this question. Jackson has been studying how networks operate for over a quarter-century. In particular, he has focused on the implications that come from “the general tendency of people to interact with others who are similar to themselves.” He shows that “the entrenched networks of information and norms” that underpin this inclination are the primary force behind immobility. Inequality, he concludes, can be viewed “as a result and not as the root cause.”
Looking at historical analysis and regarding correlations between world peace, trade networks, and alliance networks, Jackson crucially writes:
"Both trade and military alliances became much denser and more stable over time, coinciding with the dramatic decrease in wars. Moreover, most wars that have occurred in the past three decades have involved low-trade countries on at least one if not both sides of the conflict. Major trade partners simply do not appear on opposite sides of a war. (...) If one wants a recipe for lowering the incidence of wars in Africa and the Middle East, the message is clear: grow the economies and the regional trade networks, and especially promote trade between potential adversaries. It is not an easy task, but it is the obvious one. Signing repeated treaties, even with powerful third parties but without serious trade, has been tenuous at best. As we have seen dangerous cycles of isolationist tendencies over the centuries, this lesson about trade networks and peace might be on of the more important ones in these pages."
This is a phenomenal work by a phenomenal economist. IMHO--although it may get a bit technical at times for general audience--this is a must-read work in network theory, which is a subfield of microeconomic theory (or more specifically, game theory).
My three favorite essays are:
1. Immobility and Inequality: Network Feedback and Poverty Traps
2. The Wisdom and Folly of the Crowd
3. Globalization: Our Changing Networks
Why can’t money buy you mobility? “The Human Network” is most fascinating and convincing in addressing this question. Jackson has been studying how networks operate for over a quarter-century. In particular, he has focused on the implications that come from “the general tendency of people to interact with others who are similar to themselves.” He shows that “the entrenched networks of information and norms” that underpin this inclination are the primary force behind immobility. Inequality, he concludes, can be viewed “as a result and not as the root cause.”
Looking at historical analysis and regarding correlations between world peace, trade networks, and alliance networks, Jackson crucially writes:
"Both trade and military alliances became much denser and more stable over time, coinciding with the dramatic decrease in wars. Moreover, most wars that have occurred in the past three decades have involved low-trade countries on at least one if not both sides of the conflict. Major trade partners simply do not appear on opposite sides of a war. (...) If one wants a recipe for lowering the incidence of wars in Africa and the Middle East, the message is clear: grow the economies and the regional trade networks, and especially promote trade between potential adversaries. It is not an easy task, but it is the obvious one. Signing repeated treaties, even with powerful third parties but without serious trade, has been tenuous at best. As we have seen dangerous cycles of isolationist tendencies over the centuries, this lesson about trade networks and peace might be on of the more important ones in these pages."
June 11, 2021
I read it in a series:
- The Human Network (Prof Matthew Jackson@Stanford),
- Linked: the new science of networks (Prof Barabási@NEU),
- Social and Economic Networks (Prof Matthew Jackson@Stanford) [Stanford online course],
- The Self as Method (Prof Biao Xiang@Oxford) [English Intro] [Chinese interview connecting to East Asia's current social problem of involution],
and thus the other readings look slightly indirect and cannot be the oracle standard for interventions on society:
- Social Psychology (David Myers), and
- Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks,
- course materials of Harvard Sociology class SOCI S-11: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/26844 and the undergrad curricula of sociology at Harvard: https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book...
Takeaways:
1) Interesting property of social networks: the number of followers follows a Zipf's law. Therefore, on average, every person's friends are more sociable than them, because high-follower people tend to be the friends of more people, so they are counted more times. => Social impact: for example, in some high schools, students who start smoking early tend to be more popular. Following this law, average student will tend to smoke earlier if they have more friends than if they have fewer friends.
2) Network clusters exist. This means that for information to pass from one cluster to another, we can only rely on the very sparse inter-cluster connections. If two clusters are N-degree neighbors, they will be (X%)^N likely to pass information to each other. => Social impact: if these informations are SAT exam preparation tips, job opportunities, etc, it will cause different clusters to end in different social groups.
- The Human Network (Prof Matthew Jackson@Stanford),
- Linked: the new science of networks (Prof Barabási@NEU),
- Social and Economic Networks (Prof Matthew Jackson@Stanford) [Stanford online course],
- The Self as Method (Prof Biao Xiang@Oxford) [English Intro] [Chinese interview connecting to East Asia's current social problem of involution],
and thus the other readings look slightly indirect and cannot be the oracle standard for interventions on society:
- Social Psychology (David Myers), and
- Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks,
- course materials of Harvard Sociology class SOCI S-11: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/26844 and the undergrad curricula of sociology at Harvard: https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book...
Takeaways:
1) Interesting property of social networks: the number of followers follows a Zipf's law. Therefore, on average, every person's friends are more sociable than them, because high-follower people tend to be the friends of more people, so they are counted more times. => Social impact: for example, in some high schools, students who start smoking early tend to be more popular. Following this law, average student will tend to smoke earlier if they have more friends than if they have fewer friends.
2) Network clusters exist. This means that for information to pass from one cluster to another, we can only rely on the very sparse inter-cluster connections. If two clusters are N-degree neighbors, they will be (X%)^N likely to pass information to each other. => Social impact: if these informations are SAT exam preparation tips, job opportunities, etc, it will cause different clusters to end in different social groups.
April 9, 2019
Difficult but rewarding
Why 4, not 5? I struggled. I don't quite know why. The topic was interesting. The prose was clear. (After 40 years in IT I did have to do a memory erase - not an ethernet to be found.) Perhaps Dr. Jackson deserves a 5 and the -1 is my fault. Read it - and you should read it - and draw your own conclusions.
The essence of the book is a demonstration of the old saw "it's not what you know it's who you know. Dr. Jackson explains that it's not only your friends but their friends that matter. And how are you connected? Do you have the "right" connections? Part of my problem is that I had difficulty visualizing the various networks. That has usually not been.a problem for me. What is clear and well explained is how the instant connectivity of the Internet amplifies both good and bad: in particular panics and misinformation. Homophily is the central theme: the tendency for people to seek out or be attracted to those who are similar to themselves. In other words the social media "echo chamber."
Two slightly off topic notes:
1) I was educated as an engineer in the 60's. The advance of knowledge since that time is.mind boggling .
2) The American musician Taylor Swift's Twitter account has 83.1 million followers. She, Miss Swift, follows no one. In network terms she is centric to a huge network. If one goes out four links she via friends of friends of friends of friends is likely connected to every Twitter user. The question: what would be the value if you were the only person Miss Swift followed?
Enjoy the book.
Why 4, not 5? I struggled. I don't quite know why. The topic was interesting. The prose was clear. (After 40 years in IT I did have to do a memory erase - not an ethernet to be found.) Perhaps Dr. Jackson deserves a 5 and the -1 is my fault. Read it - and you should read it - and draw your own conclusions.
The essence of the book is a demonstration of the old saw "it's not what you know it's who you know. Dr. Jackson explains that it's not only your friends but their friends that matter. And how are you connected? Do you have the "right" connections? Part of my problem is that I had difficulty visualizing the various networks. That has usually not been.a problem for me. What is clear and well explained is how the instant connectivity of the Internet amplifies both good and bad: in particular panics and misinformation. Homophily is the central theme: the tendency for people to seek out or be attracted to those who are similar to themselves. In other words the social media "echo chamber."
Two slightly off topic notes:
1) I was educated as an engineer in the 60's. The advance of knowledge since that time is.mind boggling .
2) The American musician Taylor Swift's Twitter account has 83.1 million followers. She, Miss Swift, follows no one. In network terms she is centric to a huge network. If one goes out four links she via friends of friends of friends of friends is likely connected to every Twitter user. The question: what would be the value if you were the only person Miss Swift followed?
Enjoy the book.
March 25, 2020
Matthew Jackson make network theory very approachable and shows how it can provide great insight into understanding and solving various types of problems. At some points, it really highlights how politicians and business men should really rely on experts to address situations they may have created. The greatest insight was how he shows (again and again) how we are influenced by those we know, for good and bad, how networks create inequality and and polarization. Some of it is intuitive and experienced but he shows how deep network influences human behavior.
The reading is a little tedious at times and in get into details of some obscure stories or studies to prove some points that may not be that important.
I do recommend to those who are not afraid of an academic read (not the type of book that is going to be turned into a movie).
The reading is a little tedious at times and in get into details of some obscure stories or studies to prove some points that may not be that important.
I do recommend to those who are not afraid of an academic read (not the type of book that is going to be turned into a movie).
November 20, 2022
Compared to Jackson's master-level course on Coursera, this book is largely dumbed down to suit readers without a background in economics and mathematics. As a result, I did not enjoy it as much the Coursera lectures. When the author introduces applications of the homophily concept, he spends too many words on the background of these applications (e.g., inequality and polarization in US) rather than the applications themselves. The last few chapters seem repetitive and in need of editing.
Still, I am glad to learn about the "Friendship paradox" (perhaps it's too simple so I don't remember Jackson covering it in the Coursera course…). Also like the distinction between factoid learning and belief-updating learning.
Still, I am glad to learn about the "Friendship paradox" (perhaps it's too simple so I don't remember Jackson covering it in the Coursera course…). Also like the distinction between factoid learning and belief-updating learning.
January 31, 2024
Remarkable book. It explores important and contemporary social and economical topics from networks perspective (mainly composed by humans), including how these have evolved and are evolving with technological changes.
It made me stop to reflect many times, thinking about how biased sometimes are our beliefs, how connected and at the same time divided our societies are, how much we rely on other people’s opinions and connections, how worrying it is the increasing social division in inequality and polarisation, how this may seem counterintuitive given today’s ease in connecting and gaining knowledge and information.
A list would be necessary to count all the interesting insights this book contains (I swear there are even positive ones). However some repetitions may have been avoided.
It made me stop to reflect many times, thinking about how biased sometimes are our beliefs, how connected and at the same time divided our societies are, how much we rely on other people’s opinions and connections, how worrying it is the increasing social division in inequality and polarisation, how this may seem counterintuitive given today’s ease in connecting and gaining knowledge and information.
A list would be necessary to count all the interesting insights this book contains (I swear there are even positive ones). However some repetitions may have been avoided.
July 24, 2023
If you want to learn about network theory, this is a good book: it's readable, with lots of examples, and covers non-obvious but powerful concepts clearly. And you have to give it credit for topical prescience - how many books published in 2019 featured a chapter on pandemics and another on bank contagion? But it's really just about network theory - aside from a random disconnected chapter about macroeconomics for some reason - which means it doesn't live up to the grand claims of the subtitle and summary. Put another way, I don't really think it's that useful to learn about just network theory. (Props for the #lastman reference though.)
July 2, 2020
Solid and up-to-date review of key network methodology concepts and applications in the social sciences. The author is a major contributor to this literature. The section on contagion is highly relevant amidst the pandemic. Most interesting for me were the chapters on network epistemology (the Degroot learning stuff). I remove one star because of uncritical recounting of some empirical work that had since been discredited (eg the Stanford prison study, which is now know to have been anything but what the conventional story suggests).
August 10, 2019
The book is all about looking into common human network phenomenon around us (spread of fake news, friendship, corruption, poverty and others) through the lens of a network theory. How different types concepts of centrality helps us to explain about the inhibition and excitation of human influence in networks of humans in work place or home or community or nations. Lots of awesome specific curated examples to explain the nuances of the network.
February 4, 2023
I liked it (3.5)! Interesting one if you're into looking at social issues, like inequality, polarisation, and social immobility, from an economist's perspective (with a multidisciplinary approach, including lots of behavioural psychology, sociology). It focuses on human social networks and how these social structures determine power and influence, but it also goes into patterns of contagion, from diseases to financial crises. Read it for a course.
July 14, 2019
This book is germane to my work and served as a great refresher to the power of social network effects. I was intrigued by diffusion centrality which seems to be a modified version of eigenvalue centrality that I had been more familiar with. This is something I should recommend to my coworkers or anyone curious as to how people can affect one another.
September 23, 2019
Great read. The author takes the concept of networks and applies it to a wide array of phenomena in our society, from financial contagion to disease, politics to social inequality and more, exploring the similarities and differences between networks and the spread of ideas/etc., and looking at how networks are evolving amid technological advances.
April 27, 2019
Great book, took great notes on it
Social networks, economic networks, details of how social happenings occur
My interview with the professor:
http://www.armenshirvanian.com/podcas...
Social networks, economic networks, details of how social happenings occur
My interview with the professor:
http://www.armenshirvanian.com/podcas...
July 28, 2019
Not what I thought it would be, so that's on me. It's a little more in-the-weeds than I was expecting but if you want full-on history lessons with your explanations of social systems, it's a very good book.
December 22, 2020
This book covers important discoveries that underpin a materialist (network dynamics) explanation that accounts for a lot of emergent social dynamics - and it is quite well written. It is not a long book, but even so, could quite easily be summarised in 50 pages.
January 15, 2021
This book was a great introduction to some of the ways our "networks" of people we interact with impact things like economic opportunity, the spread of ideas, and pandemics. It focused on high-level intuitive ideas and did a great job backing up those ideas with empirical data, case studies, and a little bit of math. It reminded me of books like The Tipping Point and Predictably Irrational. It is incredibly relevant in a world battling both COVID-19 and the problems associated with social media.
May 17, 2023
Idea-worth of this book in the number of pages is less than 1. The reading experience was boring, the author is overstressing the same trivial point over and over again. Barely any food for thought stuff.
June 17, 2019
Lots of data but very readable. Amazing book!
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