The Social Network

File under Meet Yourself and Cage the Rage

I recently read a book called Connected: The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives by Nicholas Christakis and James Folwer.  The book is intriguing in showing that our self-determination is often undermined by our social networks and our place in them.  The book even argues through study evidence that our friends' friends' friends' can make us fat.  Even if we don't know them.

But one of the really interesting findings through the authors' research was the fact that our happiness was less dictated by our current, transitory state, and more so by a set point for personal happiness that is not easy to change.  The authors used the evidence that for both lottery winners and paralysis patients there was little to no change in their happiness after two years compared to prior to the life-changing event, arguing that lottery winners still have annoying relatives, and paraplegics can still fall in love. 

The authors went on to argue that a transitory change in our state has less impact on our happiness than our social network does.  Surrounding ourselves with happy people has more effect than us actively trying to be happy.  And it can be inferred that surrounding ourselves with successful people has more impact than just really wanting to be successful.

This book reminded me a lot of one of my favorite movies, Rushmore. The movie is essentially about an over-ambitious, under-achiever at a prep school who needs the social network of the school much more than the school needs him. 

My favorite scene of the whole movie:


Oh so many lessons from this movie! and quotes.  Highly recommend it.

Song of the Day
The main charachter, Max Fischer, was played by Jason Schwartzman, son of Talia Shire, nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, and cousin of both Sofia Coppola, and Nicholas Cage, and today remains one of my favorite characters of all time, despite being Schwartzman's first acting role.  There's something in the famliy, because amazingly he is maybe an even more accomplished musician than actor. In honor of Rushmore and Max Fischer, the song of the day is Schwartzman's solo project Coconut Records' "West Coast".