Casual acquaintances beat close friends for job leads because they know different people.

Evidence

In his pioneering work on job searchers during the 1970s, Mark Granovetter documented the counterintuitive fact that casual acquaintances can be more important assets than close friends and family for individuals in search of employment. My closest friends and kin—my “strong ties”—are likely to know the same people and hear of the same opportunities I do. More distant acquaintances—my “weakties”— are more likely to link me to unexpected opportunities, and thus those weak ties are actually more valuable to me. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1110

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the strong-ties vs. weak-ties distinction clearly and memorably.