So much for Malcolm Gladwell

I am three degrees of separation from the Bush family. And Ralph Lauren. And a certain Serbian war criminal. (All through separate channels.) I find this fascinating.

The picture is by Mark Lombardi, whose work is simply diagrams of the way people and things connect together in altogether unexpected ways – things like Iran-Contra, or mid-east oil, or something like that. It’s great commentary on the bizarre interconnectedness of the world. In an age of global communications and transportation, the networks of sheer coincidence get more and more tangled and involved. On more than one occasion I’ve found out that one acquaintance (often in a different time zone) knows another from a totally different channel. It kind of takes one aback.

In The Tipping Point, the aforementioned Mr. Gladwell ascribes a lot of this interconnectedness to certain extroverted people he calls “connectors.” While there is probably quite a bit of merit in that phenomenon, I’m constantly surprised how seldom my connections with people run through someone known for their large circle. Most of it seems to be just coincidence, maybe a little tied in with the whole cognitive assortment idea that I can’t seem to get away from. Maybe the difference his “connectors” make is knowing how to tie one part of the network to the other. It’s one thing to BE a couple of steps away from Nandan Nilekani, and a whole different thing to be able to DO something with it. This, following the Robert Reich / Thomas Friedman school of thought, would seem to be the skill for the new century: connecting things disparate.

There is, of course, the argument that the interests and affiliations around you attract people with the same interests and that they’re bound to know each other. I’m not altogether convinced by that reasoning: beyond a crude cognitive thing, very seldom does a common interest even play a part, at least in all three parties. This is the kind of thing that spawns conspiracy theories (and Lombardi’s work.) Most of it is surely innocent mathematics.

(On a related note, check out the new and improved Meredith Meyer site (left.))