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

Talks at Google · 52.7K views · 2014-03-07 · 54:47

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

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.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2015–2022

Topics

Psychology & human behavior Data science & statistics Ideas & learning (other)

What people said

patcon · 2019-12 · Strong recommendation
Yay! Social physics :) There's a great Authors at Google talk by Sandy Pentland, about his book of the same name. Gives a good overview of the book, but 100% still worth a read after watching, esp if you are someone who works with (or would like to work with) large groups of people -- event organizing, companies, community, group facilitation, etc. [VIDEO]
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legel · 2016-06 · Strong recommendation
The most profound thing I know about cities + public policy: Google hosted a talk in 2014 by MIT Professor Sandy Pentland called "Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread". His research concludes that our connectivity - free and fast flow of data on networks, people on roads, goods and services, etc. - is our greatest economic and social virtue. His models show - "like a law" - that the more connected we are, the wealthier we are as a society. Check it out: [VIDEO] And good luck to everyone behind this.
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gd2 · 2015-09 · Recommendation
Sandy Pentland: "Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread" | Talks at Google similar theme. [VIDEO] I think its in this video that he talks about the productivity gains of the seemingly random exchanges of ideas, and the possibility to increase them by scheduling and thoughtfully designed common areas.
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Sources

Video by Talks at Google, played through YouTube.

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