Not only is it a bad example, it's cheating! The guy in Tokyo didn't know the target personally; he just looked him up in a register. The origin of "Six degrees

Not only is it a bad example, it's cheating! The guy in Tokyo didn't know the target personally; he just looked him up in a register. The origin of "Six degrees of separation" presumes that each individual in the chain knows the next link personally. Here's how the original experiment worked: "The recipient was asked whether he or she personally knew the contact person described in the letter. If so, the person was to forward the letter directly to that person." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_experiment )