URBAN FRICTION
percent of its GDP on defense, which is the highest level among developed nations. It has few natural resources, lurches from war to war, and has absorbed more than 1.5 million immigrants in the last twenty years. But Israel has turned all of these drawbacks into assets. Consider the small size of the country in terms of both its land and population. “The tiny scale of this country is extremely important,” Vardi says. “In Israel, the social graph is very simple: everybody knows everybody. And if you don’t know somebody, then they are probably only one degree removed. You can find them very easily.” (It also helps that Israel is the second-densest country in the developed world, with more than 91 percent of people living in urban areas.) The intimacy of Israeli social networks means that ideas circulate at an incredibly fast pace; the knowledge spillovers are nonstop. Just look at Vardi, who insists that he learns about all of his start-ups from casual conversations with other people. “What typically happens is a friend tells me about his friend, who has this interesting idea,” he says. “And so then I talk to some other people, who also think the idea is interesting. And maybe they talk to some other people, and before you know it we’ve got a funding plan. That’s how the process always works.” Vardi is referring to a very particular kind of social connection. It’s long been clear that the vast majority of people have somewhere between four and seven close friends, or what sociologists refer to as strong ties. This number is remarkably stable across all cultures and demographics, suggesting that we’re inherently limited when it comes to cultivating deep relationships. After all, there’s only so much time in the day for telephone chats and get-togethers. However, the same uniformity doesn’t apply to weak ties or
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