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A very insightful book- focusing on the historical and technical side of various networks (biological, technological, social, etc). The book provides a lot of cases and real-world scenarios, applying learning about network links to terrorism, to the financial crisis, and to Hollywood. Even though it's quite technical in nature and not exactly an easy read, it is both valuable and interesting.
Mathematicians, social webs, ecological webs, the internet, cells, financial markets, corporate boards of directors -- they're all a lot alike and we've just discovered that.
It is extremely well written, easy to understand yet totally engaging. He also explains why only 40% or so of the Web is actually indexed by search engines and even though the Web is a great place to post your information the chances are that it makes not difference if it is there or not unless it is linked.
It isn't filled with much technical speak and is written in a very easy to read manner. This is an excellent read.
Barabasi shows how networks like the Web are created based on link popularity and how the Web is not a random place at all as most people believe. The flow of the book is also very good.I found this book far more enjoyable than 'Sync' which I found hard to follow at times, even though both books deal with similiar subject material.
Barabasi has created something here that anyone can read and understand.In summary the book looks at network theory and the discoveries that have been made recently that change the manner in which we consider all sorts of networks are constructed. His notion of scale networks and hub is extremely compelling and interesting.If you are interested in networking in nature or man made then this book is for you.
Highly recommended.
Instead of lingering, his arguments could have been stated more succinctly; instead of repeating, his descriptions and references could have been expanded. After reading this book, actually quite sooner than that, my reaction was: is that all there is. As one reviewer has said: there is a lot of fluff here. This is a fascinating topic. However, its execution is more like a long-winded journal article than a monograph.
However, for someone who is just curious, there are too many mathmatical formulas and scientific references. The book "Linked" is very interesting and it is written so that the average person can follow it. I found myself thinking, "Get to the point already." Not recommended for the average joe reading out of curiosity. However, the author describes every detail (it seems) of how he and his colleagues discovered the links, hubs, etc., and how they disproved past theories, etc. For some people, that's probably interesting, and even good for people who want to do real research and use this book as a reference. Too much information that the common reader will not care about, but a lot of information for scientists, mathmeticians, researchers, etc. Overall, though, a good read.
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