The Strength of Weak Ties

The Strength of Weak Ties is a paper by Mark Granovetter. A weak tie is a connection that is relatively weaker than the "regular" connections of a node (e.g. close family vs. acquaintance).

To obtain data for his doctoral thesis, Granovetter interviewed dozens of people to find out how networks are used to land new jobs. Granovetter found that most jobs were found through "weak" acquaintances.