I’ve written a few posts about Doctor Nicholas Christakis and Doctor James Fowlers' research. This post is about their book - Connected: the Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives . Their research uses network analysis techniques to the aid the understanding obesity, smoking, happiness, back pain, sexual practices, beliefs, and other social phenomena. Their interesting finding is that all these phenomena are contagious.

Christakis and Fowler base their findings on a careful analysis of the Framingham Heart Study, conducted from 1948 to the present in a small Massachusetts city. They have mapped more than 50,000 ties between just over 12,000 people. In essence they argue that if friend’s friend’s friend - whom you’ve never met, and lives 50 kilometres away - is unhappy, then you’re likely to be unhappy as well. In other words there are three degrees of influence. They demonstrate the same outcome for smoking behaviour and obesity, and attribute it to “norming behaviour”. In short we are part of a collective (social network) that seeks homeostasis and is bound by certain rules. According to Christakis and Fowler these are:

I bought "Tools for Complex Projects " because I saw a brochure advertising it and an associated course, which seemed to deal with network analysis in a project management environment. Unfortunately it didn't, but I don't regret buying the book. In fact it has been one of the most interesting and enlightening books on project management that I have bought in a long time.

The book is organised into two sections. The first section has a theoretical bent and deals with complexity. Typically project complexity is defined in terms of scale, cost, and risk, but Remington and Pollack classify projects as structurally complex, technically complex, directionally complex, and/or temporarily complex. I found this classification both interesting and useful: so useful in fact that I decided to use it in my PhD, and it's something I'll blog about in the near future. The second section provides some tools and methods to deal with the different types of complexity. I've scribbled notes all over the book, which is an indication of its usefulness to me.