How networks actually work
The human kind: research on weak ties and professional relationships, and the practical craft of building them.
When researchers instrumented a real business mixer, guests spent half their evening with people they already knew. A pre, during and post system built around that finding.
Firm-wide remote work made collaboration networks more siloed and more static. What the Microsoft and proximity research says, and the tactics that rebuild the missing bridges.
What a profile is actually read for, why commenting beats posting for reach, and why engagement bait costs more credibility than it buys attention.
Granovetter’s 1973 paper, Burt on structural holes, and LinkedIn’s 20-million-person randomised experiment. The effect is real, and it is not linear.
Networking feels grubby when it is favour extraction. The research on asking, on the liking gap and on why instrumental networking makes people feel dirty points at a better model.