S1E7: YY Ahn on How the Friendship Paradox Impacts Your Mental and Physical Health https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/reliantsproject/7_YY_Ahn_on_How_the_Friendship_Paradox_Impacts_Your_Mental_and_Physical_Health.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadYY Ahn is an Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University. He investigates questions across a range of fields including sociology, health, economics and culture.In this episode we:– Discuss what YY learned from analysing LinkedIn’s data from 500 million users in 25 years – Talk about the friendship paradox and how understanding it affects your physical and mental health – Explore YY’s research on COVID and counterintuitive approaches to contact tracingKEY NETWORK SCIENCE CONCEPTS The Strength of Weak Ties Preferential Attachment SHOW NOTES How did YY become interested in network science during his undergraduate degree? [1:40] What’s the difference between networks and systems, and why do people often confuse the two terms? [4:34] How YY and his team approached the challenge of analysing LinkedIn’s data from 500 million users in 25 years [5:15] What data did YY and his team actually have access to and what were LinkedIn’s privacy protocols around the use of the data? [8:44] How does the concept of clusters in network science differ from the same concept as it’s used in economics? [9:44] What are the most interesting clusters that YY and his team discovered from the data? What does the data reveal about what the optimal skills are for young people to be learning and which degrees are the most useful? [10:32] What are the trends in terms of migration into and out of major clusters like Silicon Valley? [12:12] Solving the problem of upskilling the global workforce is a real challenge in the 21st century. How does MIT’s skill network analysis help inform this process? [15:31] The research YY has been doing on the coronavirus and contact tracing [16:42] What is the friendship paradox and why is this concept so counterintuitive? How does it apply to the spread of the coronavirus? [17:11] What are the problems with contact tracing as it’s being applied to the coronavirus and how can network science concepts make this process more efficient? [21:33] What can we as individuals do to stop COVID-19 spreading amongst our own networks? [23:28] Bluebox: Erica explains the concept of the friendship paradox, discussing the impact it has on the way we see ourselves [26:52] How have the insights YY’s gained from studying network science impacted his own life? [28:51] How does social media reinforce the friendship paradox and increase FOMO? [32:01] What advice would YY give to people who are curious about these concepts looking to understand the impact of networks on their lives more deeply? [33:40] Where to find YY Ahn online [35:01] SELECTED LINKS FROM EPISODEConnect to YY – Twitter | LinkedIn | Research Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter Global labor flow network reveals the hierarchical organization and dynamics of geo-industrial clusters – YY Ahn Why Your Friends Have More Friends than You Do – Scott Feld YongYeol.com – Yong-Yeol “YY” Ahn’s website PEOPLE MENTIONED Douglas Hofstadter Scott Feld Alexander Gates