The readings this week kept reminding me of my brother and my mother. More specifically, the things they always tell me seem to relate back to the readings. Obviously, I got distracted and can’t think thoroughly afterwards. SO here goes.
My brother always told me (without going into detail) that it is important to make links with other people, because that is how it will help you get a job and he believes that degrees won’t help you find a job. Regardless, they are important to have in this current society because according to what my mother says, it apparently increases the income you earn. I still don’t get what this means, however. Anyway, preferential attachment would come into play here since that meant that people who know the employer (on very good terms, I must add) are more likely to get hired. Studies also show that employers hire people they want to be friends with which could be that those acquaintances you make might want get to know you more and thus, are more likely to hire you? Makes sense, I guess.
The term, “the rich get richer” is what she, my mother, always says. On another note, I believe with all my naiveté, that the reason why the rich get richer is because they have the money to spend or invest in ventures that will return more money back to them. The poor on the other hand, have to spend their money on necessities to survive and their children’s education (if they have any) and they are certainly not cheap. Then again, the wealthy have to pay huge taxes compared to the middle-low classes of society, so essentially they are helping by giving back the money to the people.
I also found it interesting how Barabási mentioned how nodes that are already heavily linked are linked at a faster rate, like how “highly cited papers are more likely to be cited again”. This is kind of related to popularity in a way, since for some reason, popularity equals to success. When something is highly popular, it is more well known by other people thus linking more people to said thing, and it will be considered “good”. I guess it’s a part of human nature to assume that when something is “highly linked”, it should be something good otherwise, why is it highly linked?
Okay, I’m done for now since I don’t have anything more to add on.