Collaboration and Creativity: The Small World Problem

Valdis Krebs pointed me to this interesting study, Collaboration and Creativity: The Small World Problem by Brian Uzzi and Jarrett Spiro. The authors, said “Small world networks have received disproportionate notice in diverse fields because of their suspected effect on system dynamics. The authors analyzed the small world network of the creative artists who made Broadway musicals from 1945 to 1989.” Now I have seen a number of those within the analysis. They authors concluded. “the varying “small world” properties of the systemic-level network of these artists affected their creativity in terms of the financial and artistic performance of the musicals they produced. The small world network effect was parabolic; performance increased up to a threshold, after which point the positive effects reversed. “

In other words, who you know is critical to success, This was published in the American Journal of Sociology. I was a Sociology major as an under grad. I guess I missed my calling.

Comments

[Bruce Lewin]

Fascintating :-)