バラバシ教授の新著は「成功の方程式」
ネットワーク科学で著名なバラバシ教授の新著は、成功の方程式がテーマだ。既に功成り名を挙げ、単に科学書を書くだけでは物足りなくなったのかと思う。中身は発売後にじっくりと読みたいが、面白いのは、プロモーションの活動である。
以前教授とはお会いしたことがある。しかし、親しいというわけではない。ところが突然、下記のようなメールをいただいた（ちなみにこのメールはSNSにシェアするのは奨励されています）。
面白いことに、この本の成功法則に従って、この本のプロモーションを行っているというのである。要は、成功は、あなたのハードワークによってもたらされるのではなく、周りにどう受けとめられるかが鍵だというのだ。だからこの本の成功か失敗も、バラバシ教授がいかに熱意をもって書いたかではなく、その周りにいる人、すなわち私やあなたがどう振る舞うかによって決まる。だからこれを奨励することにエネルギーを注いでいるというのである。
結果を見たいが、その前に、本を楽しもう。よろしければご一緒に。
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I am writing to share some good news: The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success, a book that I have been writing for the past three years, will be published on November 6. It chronicles my lab's journey as we put success under our data microscope. This was not only fascinating science - our findings radically changed the way I advise my students, colleagues, and my children.
Common wisdom goes something like this: Work hard and success will follow. How many times have we seen that fail? Our research reveals why: Success is not a direct result of our performance, but instead it is determined by how that performance is perceived and valued by those around us. In other words, your success isn’t about you, it’s about us.
It is this collective nature of success that makes it a Big Data and network science problem, areas where my lab has particular expertise. This also means that now that the book is finished, its fate is out of my control. Its success depends on how the community perceives its message. I am hoping, therefore, that you would are willing to share this email with anyone who you think could benefit from our research. To get a better sense of what the book is about, feel free to read the Introduction.
If you are in Boston, join us for the November 6th book release event at the Brookline Library (361 Washington St.) at 6:30pm. We will also live stream it, details forthcoming at formula.barabasi.com.
I know this book will help many people, more than anything I have ever written, and I am so grateful for your support in getting to the people whose careers can benefit from the patterns that my lab has unveiled in the past eight years.
Yours sincerely,
Albert-László Barabási
(feel free to share it from email to social media)