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Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age Reprint Edition

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Duncan J. Watts (Author)
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4.3 out of 5 stars 48 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0393325423
ISBN-10: 0393325423
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (February 17, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393325423
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393325423
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsAn entertaining and illuminating read!
By A Customer on March 19, 2003
Format: Hardcover
Contrary to some recent remarks from an apparently aggrieved reader, I think Six Degrees is actually quite different from most books claiming to cover new and exciting scientific developments. Far from being self-aggrandizing, I found it's tone remarkably humble and generous to others. Watts, in fact, is the first person to call his subject the "new" science of networks, and goes to considerable lengths to acknowledge, even glorify, his intellectual predecessors. He doesn't mention every scientist who has made contributions: it's not meant to be a text book, thankfully.
Watts also has bigger fish to fry than simply the importance of networks in everything under the sun. His real message is that social reality has to be understood both in terms of the way people are connected and also the way they behave. So focusing on individual behavior to the exclusion of their interactions misses half the story, but so does just focusing on the interactions (as much of network theory has done). It's true that many of the ideas are quite old (and Watts again is the first to point this out), but the way they are put together is new, and that is what is so interesting about it.
The results are often quite deep and thought provoking, which means you have to actually read the book to understand what's in it, but Watts always comes up with an entertaining anecdote or analogy to make even the hardest concepts palatable and interesting. Overall, it's a great, fun read about a fascinating subject that really makes you think. And what more can you ask from a book?
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5.0 out of 5 starsSo...how many degrees from Kevin Bacon?
By Dr. Cathy Goodwin TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on May 9, 2003
Format: Hardcover
I've always been fascinated by social networks, having read Granovetter's work on strong vs. weak ties. As a career coach, I naturally talk to clients about the joys and frustrations of networking -- and I loved the movie "Six degrees of separation."
If you're looking for an easy piece of entertainment, this is not the book for you. Watts shows how this field has advanced by combining research efforts in information science, physics, mathematics and sociology. We look over his shoulder as he collaborates with other scientists to solve tough problems -- and get a glimpse of modern science in action (although I think Watts emphasizes the more positive, cooperative aspects of "doing science").
Students of psychology will enjoy his discussion of Milgram's famous experiment -- messages mailed to a Boston stockbroker -- and the real, as compared to legendary, results. Milgram's even more outrageous obedience experiment, which Watts includes, also deserves a footnote: subjects refused to obey (a) when the experimenter broke the rules and gave reasons for the order and (b) when they were able to reconstruct their roles outside the laboratory.
I began by borrowing this book from a library but realized that it needs to be owned. It's not a quick, one-time read. Although it's accessible, you have to pay attention and I found a need to read sequentially, from chapter to chapter. But if you read carefully, you'll change the way you look at the world.
As other reviewers have noted, Watts shows how daily life is influenced by properties of networks: Why do some viruses, computer and biological, spread, and why others come to a quick halt? Why do airline hub-and-spoke networks often break down? How do computer searches work and what makes them effective?Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent for its audience
By Michael Bishop on April 29, 2006
Format: Paperback
I wrote this book review as an assignment for a class. Its intended audience was sociologists unfamiliar with network theory. The intended audience for the book though is much wider. If you want the math, read academic journals.

In the first chapter of Six Degrees Duncan Watts notes that gossip, power outages, epidemics, even properties of the human brain such as consciousness are phenomena that may be understood as emerging from the interaction of their constituent elements. Through such examples, he calls attention to the broad applicability of his subject matter. Having provided this motivation, Watts spends much of first half of the book discussing what he knows best, "small world" networks. In the second half he presents a network perspective for a wide range of topics such as epidemics, externalities, speculation, social decision making, and organizations.

Like many academics marketing books to non-academics, Watts skillfully weaves his personal story with the science. His personal story is not only provided to keep laymen interested. Watts is now a member of the sociology department at Columbia University, but one can't help but wonder whether he identifies as a sociologist? How would other members of the discipline respond to a youngster whose PhD is in theoretical and applied mechanics who may never have read Durkheim? His early collaborators were mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists lodged in appropriate departments. Watts though, has become a strong proponent of interdisciplinary science, and he respectfully acknowledges research that has been done in anthropology, sociology, psychology and economics.

His first foray in the social sciences was inspired by the "small world" phenomenon.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

great job!

Published 1 month ago by megumi matsuda
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Engaging book on complexity.

Published 1 month ago by Kevin Linderman
1.0 out of 5 starsSkip the Biography

The author uses a writing style throughout the book that seems self-aggrandizing. It focuses on his personal life journey and interactions with colleagues. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Bryan Clifton
4.0 out of 5 starsFollow the patterns.

This author looks at groups of items and how they follow certain patterns. He points out how the world wide web was thought to be composed of random lattice clusters. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Roger Doger
4.0 out of 5 starsWorth the time if read at a leisurely pace.

This book can be challenging at times and unless your have a major degree in a scientific discipline I recommend it be read in small doses. Read more

Published 20 months ago by William L. Mince
5.0 out of 5 starsWorks as great introduction and invite for those who want to better...

Fluid and engaging this is a sort of storytelling science where we both learn and get involved throughout the development of the Network discipline. Read more

Published 21 months ago by Jose A A Nonato
4.0 out of 5 starsFIne Popularization

This well written book is a very good introduction to the science of networks. The author is a pioneer in this field and the book is organized to some extent around his... Read more

Published 21 months ago by R. Albin
5.0 out of 5 starsStill feels fresh

For a book in this realm to remain fresh and relevant when over a decade old is remarkable. I found myself recalling the events of the past decade,including the financial crisis,... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Michael S. Donald
4.0 out of 5 starsAn amazing book.

Easy and comprehensive.
A must read book for those who want to understand how everything is connected. I strongly recommend.

Published on December 13, 2013 by André
2.0 out of 5 starsMaybe It's Me...

I'm 200 pages into this 300-page book, and to save my life I couldn't say what it's about. Sure, some of it is interesting, but generally I look for a takeaway, something I... Read more

Published on June 29, 2013 by John R. Holmes, Jr.

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