James Fowler, UC San Diego professor and author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, had a formative experience learning how social networks work when he went to Ecuador for the Peace Corps and helped a small town build a water system. He became frustrated after he was unable to duplicate those efforts in 29 other villages but he realized over his two years of living there that building infrastructure was not the most valuable aspect of his stint. “The real value of the Peace Corps is the connections I made with the people while I was there.”

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