One of my favorite things to read about is the science and math of networks. Of course the relevant popular favorite is Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. But if you liked that and want a higher-level, more academic look, I recommend Linked by Albert-Lásló Barabási. John Naughton's A Brief History of the Future contains a wonderful account of how optimal organizational dynamics contributed to the development of Linux.

With all of this in mind, somehow over the last month, I have been getting the sense that my own network is starting to fold back into itself. I'll have met person A and then person B, through completely different circumstances. After a delay of months or years, I'll find out that person A and person B know each other, are roommates, or know each other through best friend person C. The frequency of these kinds of connections only in the last several weeks has been truly incredible.

It's hard to measure or quantify social networks, but I'll bet that if someone hammered away at this for long enough, they'd come up with a number--possibly a function of the size of the total networking universe (assuming people are in sufficiently proximate social and professional circles). Whatever threshold exists, I appear to have crossed it in the last few months.

This is both good and bad. It increases the utility of each connection, but you can only fool people even less of the time.