Your Life Is Driven by Network Effects

Crossroad #2 – High School NetworkHigh school networks are especially important because they are influential when we are forming our identities and worldviews as young adults. High school networks are also correlated with academic achievement, work habits, and even college admission — defining access to future networks and building a vibrant life o... See more

Will this give me the work I want to do daily?Is this the best offer I got in terms of income?Does this company look good on my resume?Does this company let me take as much vacation as I want, have free catered lunches, and a fancy office?

Crossroad #6 – Where You LiveWhere to live powerfully impacts the relationships and direction of your life, in ways you may not even realize. When coming out of college, this is even more important to your life than your choice of job. 

Where you live largely determines who you know. Who you know largely determines the richness of your life and your access to wealth and information. Your network is a form of wealth. It brings you friends, career opportunities, or a spouse. Committing to a geography and developing a network increases your access to all the experiences and resources... See more

This article outlines how we see network effects impacting nearly every aspect of your life. With that lens, it lays out a perspective on how to make the 7 most important decisions of your life. It will hopefully help you make decisions that are more true to the kind of life you want to lead.

The world seems chaotic. But it’s not. Underlying all this apparent complexity is some wonderfully simple math. Follow the math to your destination. Understanding the primacy of networks will give you a superpower to see what others do not and navigate life’s big decisions more effectively.

So if you are choosing between colleges, or know someone who is, consider the following questions:

Did you know the frequency of the words you use are determined by an underlying mathematical pattern?What’s stranger is that same mathematical pattern seems to determine the sizes of cities within a country, income distributions of people within an economy, income distribution among companies, how much traffic goes to different websites on the Inte... See more

Crossroad #5 – Marriage/Choosing a Life PartnerMarriage, or choosing a life partner, is one of the most important decisions you make in life. It could be the source of your greatest joy and/or your greatest suffering at a very personal level. In terms of the network model, it’s powerful because you are choosing someone else’s full network to add to... See more