Tipping Point: Rule of 150

[Deborah]

Haven't read it, but this recommendation sounds interesting. I particularly like the idea of communities of 150 and more local government.

I have been reading a book called "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell.  It's about how little things can make a big difference.  It
goes into fads, advertising, crime rates, etc.  Interesting book. There is a part in the book that talks about the rule of 150.  It has
been found that humans have the capacity to socialize with about 150 people, and then their ability to keep track of it all begins to break
down.  Not that you would be extremely close to that many people, but could socialize with them on a friendly basis.  When this was researched, the number 150 comes up again and again.

For example, a researcher looked at 21 different hunter-gatherer societies and found that the average number of people in their villages was 148.4.  In the military, 200 soldiers is the capacity for a fighting unit, because they cannot easily keep order with more than that.  They found that with a larger group they have to impose
complicated heirarchies and rules and regulations to try to command loyalty.  Below 150, it is possible to achieve the same goals informally.  

There is a religious group known as the Hutterites, who for hundreds of years have lived in self-sufficient agricultural communities in
Europe, and have been in the US since the early 1900's.  Every time a community approaches 150, they split into two groups and start a new
community.  They have found through trial and error that some people become strangers to each other at over 150.  The group stays close-knit and they have work in common at under 150.  At over 150, groups and clans begin to form and sometimes go against each other. At under 150, everyone knows everyone else, and what the other people in the group think of you matters more.  

The point of this is that I thought this would be relevant to forming ecovillages.  Anyone interested in forming an ecovillage might keep in
mind the magic number 150.  That would include everyone, including children.  I don't know if the magic number is true, but it seems to have some research to back it up and it might be something to think about.  

I have seen the magic number 24 at work in the classroom.  I know that in middle school, if the classroom has more than 24 students, every
student added after that is about like adding 2 or 3.  The learning curve goes down after 24.  I have had many conversations with other teachers about this and it has been widely observed.  I don't know why this happens, but it does.

[Goodtobefree]

Interesting enough, that rule of 150 seems to ring true at the Academy at Swift River as well.  When I was there, enrollment (including kids in base camp and Costa Rica) was between 110 and 130, depending on how recent there'd been a graduation.  Add 2 counselors and a teacher for every 14 kids (peer groups ranging in size from 10-18 kids), maintenence staff (2 or 3), kitchen staff (5 or 6), supervisors and managers (9 or 10), night security staff (3 or 4), the rest of the academic staff varies: anywhere from 10-20, depending on how many subjects each teacher can cover, (teaching 2 math subjects, a science course, and an elective course of some kind, for example) and the medical staff (5 or 6 nurses and a couple shrinks getting kickbacks for every kid they put on drugs).  So, at a minimum, the grand total size of the "community" assuming 8 peer groups enrolled at a time with one of them being formed as one is about to graduate, with an average of 14 students per peer group is going to be at least 170 people who either live or work at the school, between support staff, academic staff, couselors, and students.  This number was on the rise when I left (higher enrollment as well as more staff), and students in the peer groups that directly followed mine echoed concerns that the continued increase in the size of the program was making it a lot worse.  It was becoming harder to keep drugs off campus, among other things, and the general consensus was that if the school got much bigger, it would get to the point where everybody no longer knew everybody else.  For better or worse, when I was there, you knew the name of everyone on campus, and at least one or two things about them, such as where they were from or something they were into, and you interacted with them, at least in passing, either in mixed groups, work detail, class, recreation, etc.  Good or bad, as the numbers go up it's much less likely that this would be true for all the students, let alone all the staff.

[starry-eyed pirate]

What an amazing mind this cat has...I watched him speak about his latest book "Blink,the Power of Thinking without Thinking" on C-Spans' Book T.V..  What amazing insight he has into the way the human mind works.  He is able to see things in some kind of super-slow motion.  His observations on the psychology of crisis situations involving self defense are comparable to the observations of a spiritual master.  I haven't read his book yet, only heard his lecture and the Q an' A that followed, but it is definately on my list.

Thanx for fillin' me in on his other work.

[Anonymous]

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