Law of Few / Connectors, Mavens, Salesmen

Biological Parallel

Gladwell identified three roles that drive social epidemics. Ecosystems run on the same architecture: mycorrhizal fungi are connectors, linking hundreds of trees through underground networks spanning acres. Wolves are mavens—apex predators that concentrate information about herd health, triggering ecosystem-wide trophic cascades when they act. Flowers are salesmen, using costly signals (vibrant petals, concentrated nectar) to persuade pollinators to spread their genes. Network theory proves what ecosystems demonstrate: specialized nodes that bridge, inform, or persuade outperform uniform networks by orders of magnitude.