HN Books @HNBooksMonth

The book Diffusion of Innovations [1962] has a few case studies about that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations

https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-Innovations-5th-Everett-Rog...

This is the seminal book on marketing, social cognition, innovation, etc. It blew my mind. Mostly that we've known this stuff for so long, but apparently must keep rediscovering it.

Sounds interesting, and I kinda want to read the book. But... this also sounds a little bit rehashed, as it seems to cover similar ground to what Geoffrey Moore covered in Crossing the Chasm[1], or what Everett Rogers discussed in Diffusion of Innovations.[2]

Nonetheless, I think I'll buy this book and read it, just to see if there's any kernel of novel insight there. After all, for an innovator / entrepreneur, this is one of the most crucial issues out there.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Ma...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-Innovations-5th-Everett-Rog...

There's also stuff under "Network theory"[1] at Wikipedia. I feel like those two articles should probably be merged, but it hasn't happened yet, and I haven't had time to take a stab at it. But anyway, both articles contain some useful info.

I also recommend these few books as a good starting point:

Network Science: Theory and Applications[2]

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means[3]

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age[4]

The Wisdom of Crowds[5]

Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks[6]

Diffusion of Innovations[7]

Of course - being that Network Science is a multidisciplinary field, that touches a lot of other areas - it can be hard to get a handle on what to study. But those few books - between them - cover a lot of the basics and would give somebody who's interested in this stuff enough background to figure out where to start digging deeper.

For a little bit more on the technical side, a couple of good resources at:

Introductory Graph Theory[8]

Introduction to Graph Theory[9]

Algorithms in Java: Part 5 - Graph Algorithms[10]

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_theory

[2]: http://www.amazon.com/Network-Science-Applications-Ted-Lewis...

[3]: http://www.amazon.com/Linked-Everything-Connected-Else-Means...

[4]: http://www.amazon.com/Six-Degrees-Science-Connected-Edition/...

[5]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wisdom-Crowds-James-Surowiecki/dp/...

[6]: http://www.amazon.com/Nexus-Worlds-Groundbreaking-Science-Ne...

[7]: http://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-Innovations-5th-Everett-Roge...

[8]: http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Graph-Theory-Gary-Chartra...

[9]: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Graph-Theory-Dover-Mathem...

[10]: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Java-Part-Graph-Pt-5/dp/020...

⬐ mysterywhiteboy

I would add near the top of your list the awesome (and free[1]) book by David Easley and Jon Kleinberg that accompanies their Cornell undergraduate course:

Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World.

[1] http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/

⬐ mindcrime

Oooh, good call. I hadn't read that one, but it looks very good.

There's actually a really good book on this: Diffusion of Innovations by Rogers, http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0743222091/

The book places adopters into 5 categories, innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.

The innovators are the few that have the means and risk-tolerance to constantly try out new ideas. The book estimates that about 2.5% of the adopters fall into this category.

The early adopters are the next to adopt. They kind of serve as liaisons between the innovators and the rest of the world. The book estimates them at 13.5% of adopters.

The early majority are the people that pay attention to what the early adopters are doing. They make up about 34%.

The other two categories are uninteresting.

To illustrate, HN would be the innovators, Lifehacker the early adopters, and Lifehacker's audience would be the early majority.

There are various characteristics of early vs. late adopters. Most of them are as you would expect. Early adopters have more education, higher social status, more empathy, less dogmatism, more optimism, more social connections, etc.

I highly recommend the book. It's aimed towards sociologists, but I didn't have too much trouble, and I'm certainly not sociologically inclined.