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Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread | Sandy Pentland | Talks at Google

Talks at Google · talk · Watch on YouTube

Psychology & human behaviorData science & statisticsIdeas & learning (other)

What it is

Sandy Pentland of MIT presents his book on social physics, which uses big-data studies of how people interact to explain how ideas spread. He describes findings on collective intelligence and social influence.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters recommend it for the finding that idea exchange and connectivity drive productivity and wealth, which they apply to cities, offices and online communities.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2015, last 2022

What HN commenters said

  1. “The most profound thing I know about cities + public policy”

    Connectivity drives economic and social wealth, per Pentland's research.

    legel, 2016-06 · Strong recommendation · in “New Cities”

  2. “There's a great Authors at Google talk by Sandy Pentland”

    Great overview of the book for people working with large groups.

    patcon, 2019-12 · Strong recommendation · in “How Trolls Overran the Public Square”

  3. “the productivity gains of the seemingly random exchanges of ideas”

    Random idea exchanges boost productivity; design common areas accordingly.

    gd2, 2015-09 · Recommendation · in “Two scientists meeting on a bus leads to discovery in the lab”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: social physics, idea flow, collective intelligence, cities, big data

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