Thanks to the rise of smartphones, GPS devices, and the internet, Pentland and his teams can study patterns of information exchange in a social network, without any knowledge of the content of the information. Using this data, they can tell with stunning accuracy how effective that network is, whether it’s a business or an entire city. Pentland shows us how to fine-tune these networks to improve their performance — for instance, by maximising a group’s collective intelligence, or by using social incentives to work through disruptive change.

Social Physics will change the way we think about how we learn and how our social groups work — and can be made to work better, at every level of society. It is an entirely new way to look at life itself.

# By slowing down decision making they found traders got better returns on investments (vs high speed decision making due to noisy busy environments)

# Keep communicaton open with people in your network, as they’re more likely to respod to u when you later need it

# People will do a task 8 times better when a buddy is assigned to do it with them. They enjoy doing it given they can bounce ideas of someone in common.

# The more you invest time the more reciprical relationship tends to evolve, hence its harder to break

# Equal conversational turn taking is important for group cohesion. Bad when 1 person speaks and others shut up, no cohesion, pent up emotional anger.

# Giving employees in call centre breaks at same time to mingle rather than a differet times, led to more productivity and increase sales targets being met.

# Those that speak most and interrupt most are typically the ones most prominent in a social network

# The greatest chance of an experience of VALUE is to a person who visits a place they attend less frequently. Absence makes the heart grow fonder goes the saying

# Higher social tie density produces greater levels of idea flow, leading to increases in productivity and innovation