What projects I'm working on....

It might be nice for us to share what we're all working on....

I guess I get to go first! :)

As you would know, a part of my time every week is dedicated to our products here - The Great Ideas Letter, the Entrepreneur's Hotsheet, the SeedZine - the first two are joint ventures with Michael Ross....

One other project I have going on is related to the phenomenon of the Six Degrees of Separation. As you have probably heard, it's estimated you can go from anyone on Earth to anyone else, via acquaintances, through just six steps. I've been looking into research on this topic....

Here's an interesting tidbit related to this. In 1973, a sociologist, Mark Granovetter, did some research on people who found jobs through other people they knew. He surveyed whether they found these jobs through close friends, or more distant acquaintances. When you think about it, you'd expect MOST people to have gotten jobs through their close friends - since their close friends would put more effort in helping them out.

The truth is the OPPOSITE! Most people - in fact, 83% of people - who got their jobs through those they knew, got them through more distant acquaintances (people they might speak to once or twice a year).

The reason why is because people who are close to you tend to "travel" in the same "circle" that you do.... So job opportunities they know about, you probably already know about too. However, more distant acquaintances know about a lot more opportunities that you don't know of, so what they know about can have more impact on your situation.

Granovetter called his research, "The Strength of Weak Ties"....

By the way, this also has implications for business - not just for those seeking employment. Having wide contacts - and regularly contacting even your more distant acquaintances - leads to more SALES and more OPPORTUNITIES too!

(Forums like this one - where you can see people's email addresses in order to contact them - are ideal for building your business contacts. DON'T SPAM of course, that's counter-productive - but do build bridges to other people.)

A fun way to "play" with Six Degrees of Separation is the well-known Oracle of Kevin Bacon, which shows you how many links from Kevin Bacon to any other actor, through actors that have been in the same film together. (Try it out!)

More recent research in this topic explains that the six degrees of separation is explained by what's known as a "small world network".

There are other implications of a "small world network" I'm currently researching (with a couple others), which we believe has commercial implications.... So I'm still keeping a "foot" in the world of science research, and tying it to my business activities!

Michael Ross and I also have another project we're working on.... But we're still in the early stages right now.... You'll hear more about that in the future....

Thanks to Mike Winicki for the idea of this thread!

Please share some of your projects - big or small.... It would be interesting to see what we're all up to.... :)

- Dien Rice