No, that's not it. Over here. Okay（好）. Hi there, everyone. I'm Evan Green. Journalism（ 新闻业） major and executive（实行的） editor of Marshall University's student newspaper, "The Parthenon."

  And I'm Luke, an accounting major and an innovation（创新） intern with the I-Center, Marshall Center for Innovation Entrepreneurship, and apparently（显然地）, not the funniest guy Raphael knows. Now, who knows what an innovation intern is? I sure don't. But today, we're here to talk about networking. Specifically, an aspect（方面） of networking that many people don't prioritize. Interdisciplinary networking. We want to discuss not only what it is, but why it's become more important than ever in our increasingly（日益） connected world and how you can integrate（使…完整） it into your own daily life.

  Now, we all have friends. And if you don't, just pretend for tonight. And often, our friends come from diverse（不同的） backgrounds in industries. We don't live in a world where accountants（会计师） are only friends with other accountants（会计师） and doctors only hang out with other doctors. As an accounting major, I'm very thankful for that. And while it's greatly（大大地） handle（拿） our personal relationships this way, it's possible that many people don't handle their professional networks in the same manner.

  According（使一致） to Indeed, one of the top employment sites in the United States, a professional network is defined as when you build relationships with other professionals（专业人员）, both in your career field, as well as other related fields. Completely ignoring the idea of working（使工作） with fields and people that aren't directly related to your own. Now, of course, you should network within your field. These people might think like you, and they might even have similar career aspirations（渴望）, but solely（单独地） focusing on this type of networking can seriously limit both your professional and creative potential（潜能）, which is where interdisciplinary networking comes in. According to Harvard（哈佛大学(美国)） sociologist（社会学家） Robert Putnam, there are two types of social capital that professionals need to balance, bonding and bridging. Bonding capital looks like your typical networking.

  It's focused on your similarities or bonds（债券） that you have with other people, particularly those in your industry. Bridging capital, on the other hand, is more similar to what we were referred to as an interdisciplinary network. It contains the connections you have with others based on differences. And it's this second type of capital that's a result of expanding your worldview, and it's critical（决定性的） for tackling（处理） the complex human-centered（居中） problems that almost all industries face in today's world. And most of us engage（使从事于） in bonding capital every day, whether it's the people in your workplace（工作场所） or just your friends on Facebook. Finding people with similarities to you isn't difficult.

  On the other hand, bridging capital requires active effort to seek（寻找） out diverse（不同的） opinions that are different from your typical network. So, to understand why you should invest in this bridging capital and take some time to engage in interdisciplinary networking, let's first look at the personal benefits of interdisciplinary networking. It increases your career mobility（ 可动性）. Stanford sociologist Mark Granveter published The Strength of Weak Ties nearly 50 years ago, and it's now a foundational text for business networking, proving that it's not your closest connections, but your more distant（在远处的） connections that are most likely to improve your career. This might sound counterintuitive, but it does make sense when you think about it. The people you're closest to and the people in your industry likely already know many of the same people as you.

  Your networks overlap（部分重叠） significantly（意味深长地）. Meanwhile, someone you're more distantly（疏远的） connected to has their own unique（唯一的） circle of connections, and those are the ones that could come in handy（手边的） when you're looking for a new job, recruiting（ 征募） for a position at your own company, or even just seeking advice on a problem that the people in your industry aren't well equipped to handle. Everton and I have both seen these benefits in action over the course of our college careers. By seeking opportunities from those outside of our field, we've been able to explore our own interests and take our careers in new directions. Since I've been at Marshall, I've held six different positions. You got fired that many times?

  No, I just like to stay busy. But of all six positions I've held, none have come from my professional network of accountants and accounting majors. And in addition to my work in journalism, I've gotten to do everything from political organizing to launching（发射） a startup through a business incubator（培养的器具）. Exactly, and without your network, none of that would have been possible. For example, the only reason he got into the incubator was because of his connection to me. Similarly, I've worked a variety of odd jobs from freelance writer to social media（媒体） manager.

  I'm the one who hired you as a social media manager. Get back. While bridging capital is beneficial（有益的） to us on this personal level, the real benefit lies outside the personal aspect. Interdisciplinary networking can help promote creative thinking and prevent groupthink or the act of blocking critical thinking in order to fit in with those around you. According to the University of California（加利福尼亚）, Berkeley, when as little as 37 percent of a group agrees on something, the rest of the group becomes more likely to agree with that section than with their own initial（最初的） thoughts. And with social media algorithms and polarized media feeding us our own personal version of groupthink every day, it's become more important than ever to make intentional（故意的） decisions regarding（把…看作） our network in order to seek（寻找） out unique（唯一的） perspectives and supercharge our creativity.

  Again, while it's not terrible to have friends who think like you, interdisciplinary networking serves a purpose greater than oneself. To tackle big problems, we need people with unique ideas, backgrounds, and skill sets. There is a reason the Avengers isn't just six people on wearing Ironman suits. But now that I think about it, couldn't the other people in the Avengers just like also wear Ironman suits? Like with their powers? Dude, what?

  Oh yeah, that's for our next talk. For now, let's talk about how you can incorporate（包含） interdisciplinary networking into your everyday life. One way is through diverse recruitment（ 招收）, something Luke and I have both experienced in our careers. When I took on the role of executive editor for the paper, I quickly realized we needed to change how we handled hiring. In the past, we had stuck almost exclusively（排他地） to journalism（ 新闻业） majors, which led to us neglecting（忽视） many of the things that journalism（ 新闻业） majors aren't well equipped to handle（拿）, like numbers, for example. And I made it a point to recruit students from outside of the journalism school to work on our staff.

  Since last spring, we've hired a chemistry major, an accounting major. Hey, I don't know if you guys have heard anything about him, but I've heard he's a pretty cool guy. And we've promoted a computer science major to one of our top positions. For those unfamiliar（不熟悉的） with interdisciplinary networking, this may seem odd, especially considering that the accounting major is in charge of our social media. Hey, while we're on that note, everybody say TEDx. Put that on the Instagram later.

  Anyways, the chemistry major is in charge of fact checking and grammar. But each of these employees bring unique skills to the table that wouldn't be possible without their interdisciplinary background. For example, the chemistry major takes an analytical（分析的） approach（靠近） to grammar that makes my head spin（旋转）. And the computer scientist has built out our website and publication（公布） process, designing automated（使自动化） spreadsheets（ 空白表格） that seem like witchcraft to most journalism（ 新闻业） majors, and Luke's business knowledge has undoubtedly（无容置疑） helped our social media（媒体） flourish（繁荣）. You're just being nice. I know without a doubt in my mind that the Parthenon has been made stronger as a result of the interdisciplinary network we've built.

  On the other hand, not everyone is in this position in which you have a say（决定权） in recruitment（ 招收） and hiring. So another option to make time and be intentional is ensuring（保证） your meeting and working（使工作） with diverse（不同的） groups of people. Which is apparently a strong suit of yours, Luke, considering all the jobs you've had. But this also includes finding ways to work on projects with people outside of your industry, which we'll get to more in a minute. One crucial（至关重要的） strategy that we can all use in our daily lives to improve our interdisciplinary networks is very simple and it's asking for help, specifically from people outside of our own fields. Absolutely.

  Luke and I's entire（全部的） friendship is built around him getting annoyed at many things in his many jobs and coming to me for advice. And vice versa, this goes both ways. Sure. Our unique perspectives（透视画法） help us look at things from different angles（角度） and allow us to develop our bridge and capital together. Eventually, this even culminated（到绝顶） in me asking Luke if he could help me with a pitch（程度） for TEDx. In four months and a few stressful nights later, here we are.

  As our world becomes increasingly connected and is ever-evolving（发展）, these networks become increasingly important not only to individuals but to humanity（人性） as we face more complex human-centered（居中） problems that require the Avengers to take on. We hope we're able to showcase（陈列橱） the importance of interdisciplinary networking and the ways in which connecting threads（线） across different industries can help advance（前进） both your personal network, your career, as well as the world. And you never know. If you implement（实施） some of these ideas into your life, you might end up here yourself someday. Or not, but you should incorporate our ideas either way. Thank you.