Re: Eleven, count 'em eleven degrees of Kevin Bacon

Posted by Abe on October 22, 2004

In Reply to: Re: Eleven, count 'em eleven degrees of Kevin Bacon posted by TheFallen on October 21, 2004

: : : : Hi,

: : : : I read an article from Design Management Review. There's a sentence I found very confusing. Could anyone here kindly help me out? Could you please phrase the whole sentence in a simpler way? especially the 'as due to rationalization......reducing risk' part and 'by some six degrees ' part. Thank you very much for your help.
: : : : "Its [Strategic Initiatives Group] mere existence could be interpreted by some business analysts as due to the rationalization of innovation investments that comes as industries mature and become more competent at reducing risk. This is often done by 'unbundling' the corporation--of separating, sometimes by just six degrees, from the company's normal operations the generally higher-risk business of innovation that sets out to achieve sustained high growth by finding gaps, incongruities, and opportunities in the marketplace."

: : : There is a theory that any two individuals are separated by no more than six acquaintances, the 'six degrees of separation' theory. I don't know how this accords with the phrase 'by just six degrees'. According to the theory, the maximum degree of separation is six degrees.

: : From the archives:

: : "Three years ago a trio of Pennsylvania college boys with too much time on their hands and a bottle of Southern Comfort came up with the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Craig Fass, Brian Turtle and Mike Ginelli wrote a letter to then TV talk-show host Jon Stewart, who invited them on his show to demonstrate the game. From these humble beginnings, a Web site arose, a book was published and a nationwide cult-fad was born.
: : The game is based on the conceit of the John Guare play and movie adaptation 'Six Degrees of Separation.' The play posits that we are all connected by six or fewer stages of circumstance or acquaintance..."
: : http://www.louisville.com/loumag/mar/bacon.htm

: : I have a faint memory that there's more to the "six degreees of separation." Maybe a medical term?

: : (See more about Kevin Bacon in the post below this one. I didn't want to mess of the picture, etc.)

: Too kind, ma'am. Further research reveals that someone with a Bacon number of 11 has been found, but the world still awaits a 12.

Out there somewhere on the web is a serious math site where someone serious has demonstrated the the 'six degrees' of separation probably is most likely applicable to academics and the celebrity world just took it up as a fad.