Practice question · Multiple choice
Most people find jobs through acquaintances rather than close friends. Granovetter called this the strength of weak ties. Why do the weak ties win?
Hints
- Ask what your closest friends know that you do not.
- Which tie reaches into a part of the world you cannot already see?
Show the answer
B. Acquaintances bridge into networks you are not already in
Why
Redundancy is the problem: your inner circle's information overlaps with yours almost completely, and a bridge into another cluster is where new information lives. Numbers help but are not the mechanism, one acquaintance in a different industry beats fifty in your own.
Practise Social Interaction and Networks
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