Dunbar's Number
Dunbar's Number: "A person can maintain stable social relationships with approximately 150 others". You may have 1,000 SNS friends, but real connections cap at 150.
Origin
In 1992, Oxford's Robin Dunbar analyzed 38 primate species — neocortex size strongly correlates with social group size. Extrapolating from human neocortex: about 150. Hunter-gatherer tribes, Roman centuries (100), average corporate department size, Facebook friend distributions — all stabilize near 150.
Meaning
You may have 1,000 SNS friends, but real connections cap at 150. A company that grows past 150 must split into departments (W.L. Gore corporate policy). Dunbar discovered the natural unit of human society.
Lesson — Meeting Eastern Classics
Analects 1.1: "Is it not joyful when friends come from afar?" Confucius did not number friendship. Dunbar measured that nature's limit exists — the size of the vessel of affection the human brain permits.
"限" combines hill (阝) with stopping (艮) — unable to proceed past the hill, a limit. Analects: "Know what you know, don't know what you don't." Acknowledging 限 is the beginning of all wisdom.
