Six (or less) degrees of separation
What would you think if I’ll tell you that you can be connected to Beyoncè? And what about your idol Steven Bradbury (see GIF below)?
Yes, it might seems crazy but you can actually be linked to anyone in the world with just six steps. How? Let’s do the math: imagine that you have 45 friends. Each of them has 45 friends that are not your friends and that have additional 45 friends, whom have other 45 friends, and they have 45 friends which finally have 45 more friends... well, with just six steps you are connected with anyone in the world.
So, 456 = 8.303.765.625 means that with only six 'introductions' you are connected with more than 8 billion people, that is even more than the world population as of today.
Speculations on this theory date back to 1969, when S. Milgram and J. Travers asked 296 people among Nebraska and Boston to ‘indirectly’ deliver a letter through their acquaintances to a Boston stockbroker. 64 of those letters were delivered and the average number of ‘steps’ to reach the stockbroker was 6.2. A first research-backed finding of the six degrees of separation theory (by the way, can you imagine being in the office and receiving 64 letters?! I would go crazy). In addition, in 2003 some researchers at Columbia University replicated the experiment, but this time with an easier (and faster) method. More than 24,000 people tried to drop an email, not directly but always through acquaintances, to one of 18 target people in 13 different countries. Only 384 of the chains were closed, with an average of four steps. But the the average length of all email-chains was between five and seven steps.
Still not convinced?
Then I have one last example for you, and this is a crazy one.
Back in 2017, I was sitting on my sofa in Brisbane (Australia) and I was looking at some videos on YouTube. I eventually stumbled upon this video below, that was the first time I was learning about the “Six degrees of separation theory”, when my Australian flatmate came back from his lectures..
S:”Ciao Ale, I’m back. How are you? What are you doing?”
A:”Ciao Stew, all good. I’m looking at this video. This is super interesting. Have you ever heard about the six degrees of separation? Crazy! This guy is challenging his viewers and asked to send an email to someone they believe has more opportunities to reach out to him. He wants to prove the theory!
S:”Ha! Nice!” * looking at the laptop * “I know him by the way, he was tutoring me in math when I was at college”
A:”Well, great! So not a big effort, I have one degree of separation from him!“
..and this means that if you know me you have two degrees of separation from him (and one from my Australian flatmate)!
So, the next time you are feeling alone or stuck with your business development project, just think that one step outside your ‘normal friends’ circle could be the beginning of something new, something you have never imagined before.
P.s. In 1994, some students at Albright College (Pennsylvania) created “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. A game where the aim was to connect any actor to Kevin Bacon in six or fewer cast lists. A funny application of the ‘six degrees of separation’ theory. Try it yourself here.
