Six Degrees - Duncan J. Watts

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age

Have you ever wondered how "small" the world actually is? Duncan Watts takes you on a fascinating journey through the science of networks and their behavior. He explains this new discipline and its origins in easy and accessible language, taking the reader on a great scientific journey. Virtually everybody has heard of the famous “Six Degrees” experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1960’s, this book takes a closer look at this phenomena and many other aspects and implications of it (from economic applications, epidemics, information cascades, cultural fads, and many more).

The author first provides the groundwork and the theory behind the study of networks (Chapters 1-5), which introduces some basic graph theory and relations of real world networks to simple mathematical models. Once the groundwork is there the author moves on to provide countless examples of applications of this new discipline: Have you ever wondered why the crowd behaves the way it does? How we can act as a coordinated body even without central control, or how social-decision making is done by ‘each’ (or is it each?) individual? This is definitely a though invoking book which will change the way you view the world and even your own behavior. In the new “Connected Age”, this is a book that everybody should be exposed to, especially in the light of recent epidemics (such as SARS) and ever growing internet and world-wide infrastructure where no country can survive autonomously.

Overall this is a very good read which I enjoyed reading from start to finish. (Good math background is definitely a big bonus if you’re reading this book, as often the author turns to analyzing graphs/graph theory and their relation to the science of networks).