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A while ago, Roger Blamire mentioned a book called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell that discusses how change comes about and advocates, amongst other things, the idea that a limited number of key players largely influence the spread of innovation. These trendsetters have come to be called the "influentials". A recent article in FastCompany challenges this idea, writing about the work done by Duncan Watts. Through large scale computer simulations, the latter arrives to the conclusion that the spread of idea has more to do with the "readiness" of society to accept them than the presence of trendsetters.  The polarity between the two approaches, accentuated by the journalist, may be misleading. Both ideas are probably parts of the overall picture. If you are interested about how change takes places, this article is worth a read.