I finally got around to trying out the Dataclysm “Relationship Test”. The theory is that your spouse or partner should be one of your closest connections (more on this later).  What’s interesting to me is how my Facebook network reflects the key networks in my life.

The biggest cluster of connections is what I call Startupland.  It’s a giant collection of investors and entrepreneurs, mostly from Silicon Valley.  What this tells me is that these professional relationships are wide-ranging and open.

The densest cluster of connections is what I call Team 2000.  This cluster consists of all my Harvard Business School classmates; since I graduated in 2000, it reflects both our intensive use of the Internet, and our desire to stay connected.

The widest-ranging (i.e. covering the most screen real estate) cluster of connections is what I call Greater Stanford.  This represents a union of people I know from my undergraduate days at Stanford, and people I know from the Palo Alto community from having lived here since 2000.  This is the most diverse cluster, since it doesn’t focus on the world of business or startups.

There are two other key clusters that are both extremely dense (though not as dense as Team 2000) and tightly focuses.

The first of these “globular clusters” is what I call the Weeklyverse, which is centered around David Weekly.  I always like to say that everyone knows David; this graph proves it.  Coincidentally, David ranks as my most important connection according to Dataclysm (my wife is my 49th connection), but we are both happily married (to other people) so I don’t think it will have much impact on our relationship.

The second of these globular clusters is what I call the Unreasonable Realm, which consists of all the folks I’ve met while mentoring for the Unreasonable Institute, both in Boulder, Colorado and elsewhere.  Like Startup Land, the Unreasonable Realm includes entrepreneurs and investors, but with a primary focus on social impact rather than making “fat bucks”.

A couple of surprising things:

• I was shocked that neither Ben Casnocha or Ramit Sethi made the Top 10 (though both ranked above my wife).  But I guess Facebook can’t measure how much people actually talk with each other outside their platform.
• The biggest surprise in the Top 10 was my old friend Laura Dent, who topped the Ex-DESCO list.  Hope you’re doing well, Laura!
• The person with the most mutual friends is my dear friend Bull Gurfein, which should not surprise anyone considering the combination of A) being at the center of the Team 2000 network, and B) being one of the most outgoing men in history.
• I should note that a lot of the people who are closest to me appear far down on the list; this probably reflects my age.  My wife, for example, hates Facebook, and still grumbles about how sharing one of my events on Facebook caused her to receive torrents of friend requests, which she assiduously ignores.