Six Degrees of Separation

I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find that extremely comforting, that we're so close, but I also find it like Chinese water torture that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the connection. It's not just big names—it's anyone. A native in a rain forest, a Tierra del Fuegan, an Eskimo. I am bound—you are bound—to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people. It's a profound thought: how Paul found us; how to find the man whose son he claims to be, or perhaps is, although I doubt it. How everyone is a new door, opening into other worlds.

So goes the famous monologue by Ouisa in John Guare's famous play "Six Degrees of Separation".
Six degrees of separation: I've heard these words being dropped many a times by a lot of people... enough reason for my interest to get triggered in search for information on it but enough laziness to put the task off for another day...
My ex-manager gave it to me as homework a long time back... Today, all of a sudden, I decided to actually go online & check up for info on it.
A 'degree of separation' is a measure of social distance between people. You are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away from everyone they know, and so on. The theory of six degrees of separation proposes that, since we are all linked by chains of acquaintance, you are just six introductions away from any other person on the planet.
The story goes something like this:

In 1929, a Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy observed that technological advances in communications and travel were helping form friendship networks that could grow larger and span even greater distances. He felt that the modern world was 'shrinking' due to ever-increasing connectedness of human beings. He proposed this hypothesis in a short story called "Chains" advocating that the more people networking around the world, the less the social distance between people.

This idea is supposed to have inspired social networking sites such as Facebook & Orkut.
Michael Gurevich and Stanley Milgram researched upon Karinthy's theory. One weird story goes that the famous and largely controversial social psychologist, Milgram, conducted studies examining people's obedience to authority by testing how many would administer potentially lethal electric shocks to screaming victims. Shocked? Horrified? Well... if it's any consolation, the screaming victim was an actor in disguise. & the study showed abt 65% of the people willing to inflict this pain. :)
Another story is that he conducted an experiment using residents of America's midwest to send packages to several hundred people in Boston, giving them just a few details of their target such as name and profession. He made a startling discovery that on an average the package went through just a chain of five people before finding the recipient.
It's not so difficult to believe this theory. Imagine your cousin got a marriage proposal. It won't take long for anyone to do a background check on this person because one of them will know someone from their place, who would know their neighbour or relative, who would've gone to school with their father, & so on.
If I were to take an extreme case such as finding a person in say... a remote village in Kenya. What would I do? Hmmm... The first thing that comes to my mind is that a lot of Kenyans participate in the marathons in India. If I were to connect to them, chances are they know someone living or doing business in that area. I have 2 degrees already. :)
Researchers at Microsoft are said to have researched this theory using electronic conversations between about 180 million people. They now deem this theory right-nearly.
Now here's an interesting summary from me. I (1) know this guy from the UK (2) who has about 3 sisters, one of whom (3) has a friend (4) who acted in some of the Harry Potter movies and is acquainted with Daniel Radcliff (5). There! I'm not even 6 degrees away from the Harry Potter actor. Ha! :)

Legerdemain by Greshma Dhanarajan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at www.blogger.com.

Being a technical writer during this recession period

The BIG question
"Will the Recession hurt my writing career?."

The current scenario
Experts repeat by the day that this recession is the worst ever and that we're only seeing its beginning now. If you look around at all the jobs affected by the current situation, you would actually find out that technical writers are one of the only ones with their heads above water. However this situation is bound to change when the recession advances into the next couple of quarters.
But in answer to the question, the recession does lead to companies laying off its writers. But do companies lay off all its employees? No! So who do they not lay off? Those who have made themselves critical to the organization!

So how do we make ourselves critical to the organization?
One skill that definitely would come in handy is proactively seeking work in your team. During crisis times, an employee who waits for work to be delivered to them may be the first to go unlike those who prove to be bankable time & time again. Some of the ways to become the most important resource to your team is by offering to extend your support to any critical deliverables, by being the first to come up with ideas to improve the quality of a process or documentation, and by building your network in the industry. The more interesting you appear to a competitor, the more your organization will try to retain you.

Continuously build your skills
Industry experts maintain that it's best to stick with product-development companies than services-based as the stability of the former outweighs the other... well atleast in most cases. Product-based companies basically look for technically proficient people, those who are good with grasping product knowledge... those who share a passion about the product that the company is selling. Project this character well & you're well in safe boundaries.
For services-based companies, marketing your skill sets is the basic mantra.
-Pick up the current trends in the industry.
-Learn new documentation concepts: DITA, modular documentation, XML-based authoring, etc.
-Get skilled in new tools by practicing on trial versions.
-Present topics at STC study sessions.
-Suggest time-saving steps that can improve your company's documentation process.
-Work overtime & ensure you gain visibility for it.

The Computer Science & IT industry is one that's still driving many nations to its growth. It can never be done away with. For this very reason, it can be said that if you work hard and smart, nobody can take your job away from you. If you don't give your best, remember there are plenty out there to replace you.

As much as the software industry is a nice field to stick to, it also doesn't hurt to skill yourself by writing for other fields. Add to your versatility by taking up freelance or second jobs in instructional design, marketing writing, business writing, resume writing (there are many job-seekers out there!), and company SOPs. Additionally you can also take up training work for documentation tools and concepts for a fee.

Write in with your comments.

Legerdemain by Greshma Dhanarajan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at www.blogger.com.