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

Why HN readers recommended it

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.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Talks at Google

Topic

social physics

Format

talk

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

3

HN mentions in dataset

6

Recommendation years in dataset

2015–2022

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• 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 …

• 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 …

• 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 …