Granovetter, by contrast, argues that what matters in getting ahead is not the quality of your relationships but the quantity -- not how close you are to those you know but, paradoxically, how many people you know whom you aren't particularly close to.
This idea is perhaps more poignant for me at this point in my life, as I am fully immersed in a full-time job hunt. The idea that I could be talking to less helpful people than others simply by speaking those who are close to me is intriguing. Going forward, I may start to rekindle old ties to see what opportunities may reveal themselves.
The Clive Thompson article posed a very different thesis. The author wrote about the rising trend of "reality mining." In this case, real life situations (in the workplace, for example) are analyzed - or "mined" - to determine possible inefficiencies. I have always found this type of analysis very interesting (e.g. the idea of removing inefficient physical movements in an operating room). I had not considered that this could be happening in a work environment, but upon reading this article it became immediately obvious. I couldn't help but to think of my first day of work, or even my first few weeks of work - I couldn't have possibly been a more inefficient worker. This, multiplied across large companies, multiplied throughout the entire workforce, becomes a staggering thought. I leave you with this food for though: Were this inefficient workplace curve to be even slightly lessened, can you imagine the increased output of companies worldwide?
