Six Degrees of Separation.

I have always been enthralled by the theory that any 2 people in the world are 6 steps away from being known to each other; and these 6 steps mean 6 people. The world is so small then; so beautifully small. And I must bow to my friends and superiors with enviable data analytical capabilities, with strong statistical abilities and with a pivotal passion for mathematics, that we have been given this social finding that sounds so spiritual in its face value. A beggar who is forced to share the pavement with the army of stray dogs is just 6 people away from knowing Bill Gates; does that causes ripples? Is this the ecstasy of hope or of disillusion?

In 2007 study was carried out by Microsoft employees, Jure Leskovec and Eric Horvitz, who examined a chain of 30 billion conversations among 240 million people. They found the average path length among Microsoft Messenger users to be 6.6; pretty close to the theory of six degree of separation? Huh.

According to a study of 5.2 billion social media relationships in twitter, it was found that the average distance on Twitter is 4.67. On average, about 50% of people on Twitter are only four steps away from each other, while nearly everyone is five steps away.

In another work, researchers have shown that the average distance of 1,500 random users in Twitter is 3.435. They calculated the distance between each pair of users using all the active users in Twitter. It heralds an intellectual debate by galvanizing the thought that an unusually active person might be separated by a number less than 6 to any other person of the world. So, if you aim to make the world a close-knit family, start making the right noise, at the right time, to the right person.

The data team of Facebook data released two papers in November 2011 which document that amongst all facebook users at the time of research (they studied about 721 million users with 69 billion mutual friendships) there is an average distance of 4.74.

It means the nature wanted us all to remain accessible to each other. It is us who played the bad game and created rifts in between humans, social lives, nations etc. You must agree that six is a small number eventually; the onus on us is to break the bar of this number in the way that helps the society most. Do you find a possibility of six reducing to five or may be four in the coming years with the aggressive might of social media spectrums and easy availability of communication machines? Shouldn’t politicians or think tanks of the nations think laterally and use this information to develop a system where the underprivileged gets introduced to the person keen enough to help at that moment of time. At least in India, deserving people have to spend a lot of time in trying to get a break just because they don’t know the right person; can an algorithm be devised for the practical usages?

The world is a small space; let’s shrink it more by knowing everyone. And at the places when knowing everyone does not suffice, let’s help everyone to give the human relationship it’s real meaning back.

A Check-list Before You Start Writing Your Biography

Make sure to keep it non-controversial, unless, of course, you are eyeing some short lived media attention and long lived grudges.

Don’t let the text be loud, allow the sub-text to rule the mood.

Sit with your family and friends more often. Observe them closely and ask them for old-forgotten memories.

Visit the significant places you have ever been. In all likelihoods, you would find some new thing and recollect some nostalgia.

Click a lot of photographs and keep all the albums handy. Devote a lot of time looking out at the pictures; the childhood pics, college pics, marriage pics, ceremonial pics, holiday trip pics, family pics etc.

Divide the events of your life in some chapters and treat each chapter as a separate entity, an al-inclusive one.

Get a basic hold on Microsoft Word (or any other tool that you prefer for the similar application).

Keep a diary with you; if you are well versed taking notes on your smart-phone, it will be as good if not better.

Make a schedule of writing; aim to write daily. In the scheduled writing hour, prefer to not do anything else; even if you are suffering with writer’s block of the day, don’t keep the pen down. You can anyway refine the raw notes at a later stage.

Keep breathing space in your writing schedule. You have to be at your thinking best so offering yourself deadlines serves no real purpose.

Talk to your old friends, and if they allow, record their conversations about your togetherness.
Always keep a backup of your soft copy.

Tie up with an editor, and explain him about the job before you press the ‘hiring now’ button.

Buzz your social network about your progress in writing the biography. It will keep your close ones informed and you might get some motivation by their comments and feedbacks.

Keep the narration simple, and don’t breach its integrity.

Refrain from using opulent, flowery words. The aim is to ensure an easy comprehension.

Avoid going high on artificial stimulants to get a high (read excess coffee, tea, alcohol, nicotine); the flow is just the best when you are truly in pulchritude.

If possible, start each chapter with a theme quote. The quote can be your own. PS: I am using this strategy for my own biography.