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SearchResearch Challenge (7/20/16): Finding connections between people

Dan Russell • July 20, 2016
 SearchReSearch
Republished with permission from SearchReSearch
SearchResearch Challenge (7/20/16): Finding connections between people Dan Russell

Connections between artists...

... thinkers, do-ers, builders, writers, composers, and makers is important.

If you know that Mr. X somehow influenced Ms. Y, or that Organization A is somehow connected with Place B, you're a leg up on understanding how history proceeds.

(For teachers: This is the kind of thing we expect our students to do all the time. This Challenge is a neat example of the kind of connection-making we want in their research papers.)

This past week I was struck by several connections that I discovered. These were so striking that I couldn't help but think of them as Challenges for the brilliant researchers in SRS.

Here are three clues to surprising connections that I found this week. Can you find the connections as well? To make this a bit more like what I was doing in my reading process, I'll give you the starting points for the search. Note that I wasn't searching for a connection between these, but I found them, and was delighted. I hope you are too.

1. What's the connection between these two people?







2. What's the connection between this company and this house?







3. What's the connection between these two people?





My answers (with a bit of colorful background on each of the connections) next week!

I thought you might find the Challenge useful because research often involves the process of searching out the possible linkages between people, ideas, and their work.

Search on!

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About the Author

Dan RussellDan Russell

I study the way people search and research. I guess that makes me an anthropologist of search. While I work at Google, my blog and G+ posts reflects my own thoughts and not those of my employer. I am FIA's Future-ist in Residence. More »

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