Oct 02, 2025 · 4 min read · network
The Small World Problem: We are more close than you may think!
Exploring the surprising closeness of human connections through the lens of the small world problem.
It all started when I noticed something fascinating: a robotics engineer joined our team who is from another continent; is my 3rd-Degree LinkedIn connection. Despite the geographical distance and lack of direct interaction, we were just a few introductions apart. This made me revisit a timeless question:
How close are we to each other, really?
What is the Small World Problem?
The Small World Problem suggests that everyone in the world is connected by surprisingly short chains of acquaintances. You might know this idea better as the “six degrees of separation” concept, the claim that, on average, any two people on Earth are connected through six or fewer steps.
This idea gained momentum when psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted his famous experiment in the 1960s. In this experiment, people from random parts of the United States were asked to send letters to a target person, but only by passing them along to someone they personally knew. Surprisingly, most letters reached the target in about six steps.
Real-World Examples
- That robotics engineer? Just 3 hops away.
- A friend in my college circle turned out to share a mutual connection with a founder I admire.
- Even celebrities often end up 2–3 degrees apart from regular folks on professional networks.
This “shrinking world” phenomenon happens because social networks are highly interconnected, with certain individuals acting as hubs that bridge distant groups. Think about professors, entrepreneurs, or community leaders, they often link clusters of people that otherwise wouldn’t overlap.
Last week, as I started exploring the small world problem, I realized that one of my favourite YouTuber Veritasium, had also uploaded a video covering the same topic. It's fascinating to see how these ideas are explained visually and with real-world examples, making the concept of "six degrees of separation" much easier to grasp.
Why Does This Matter?
- Collaboration: It shows how opportunities can spread globally with just a few introductions.
- Innovation: Cross-domain connections foster creativity and knowledge sharing.
- Robotics & AI (my field): Collaboration is increasingly global and breakthroughs often come from surprisingly cross-border teams (My team members are from Vietnam, China, Ukraine & Netherland)
And this isn’t only about professional life even cultural trends, memes, and scientific ideas spread faster because of these small-world links. The rise of open-source communities is a perfect example: projects often start small, but within months contributors from five different continents might be working together.
In network theory, small-world networks are defined by two properties:
- High clustering – people form tight-knit groups.
- Short path lengths – despite clustering, you can still reach distant nodes quickly.
This shows that even in moderately sized groups, the average number of steps needed to connect two people is surprisingly low.
Final Thought
With AI-driven recommendations, global remote work, and online communities, the world is arguably even smaller than Milgram imagined. For us, this means new friendships, collaborations, and opportunities may always be just a few handshakes away.
The next time you come across a stranger on the internet who seems far away, remember: they might already be just three or four steps away in your network. The small world problem isn’t just a theory, it’s unfolding around us every day.