The rich club phenomenon in the classroom

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It's also worth noting that, at least in the abstract, no claims are made about causation, only about correlation. So the observed effect may be completely valid, leaving wide open the question of directionality or background contributors to the effect. It is completely possible, and I think not at all unlikely, that the people who were going to be higher performers for various reasons tend to cluster, which reinforces their high performance but does not cause it.

[Cain]

Ah, good.

I really should read at least the abstract before commenting, I know...its just between shovelling lasagna in my mouth, getting dressed and checking emails...well, like I said.  Good though, because the correlation between wealth and educational achievement is pretty well established at this stage, and while some sort of explanation would be nice, I suspect any theory would be pretty complex and multifaceted.  This would definitely form part of any such theory, but wouldn't be sufficient on its own.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Shit, I know... too busy to pee? I'm there a lot myself these days. 

I thought it was interesting that they specifically measured online interactions, implying that quite possibly those students who do not participate in the rich club may also be those who are less technologically inclined and, to put it bluntly, get out more.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Perhaps ironically, I found this article and immediately passed it on to other nodes.

[Cainad (dec.)]

This would certainly go a long way towards explaining why I struggled towards the end of school. My friends were in different majors and I didn't really socialize very much within my field.

[axod]

Sometimes I nearly think it only takes two, the brightest, to fly tandem and share weight.  Ideally there would be more.  That would be pretty cool...  And, here I go, the more wheels turning together, the greater emergent synchronicities that appear.  Perhaps that's where the actual wealth or "richness" comes from, a spontaneous gift greater than the sum of it's parts - as though each individual neural network could extend beyond itself, like a flowering Venn-Diagram of processing power compounded.  Perhaps I need to think about this more, very interesting, so much good reading, Ty.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm glad you guys found this article interesting too! I'm kind of fascinated by how much systems theory is becoming a recurring theme in almost everything I look into.