The rise and fall of Crocs can teach us a little about how we communicate and influence each other. Malcolm Gladwell has published books about targeting small numbers of the most influential people who will in turn influence the masses. However, social scientist and SFI External Professor Duncan Watts has done the same research and has disproved Gladwell’s thesis on focusing on “cool or connected” people to influence others. As Watts notes, if you want to affect masses, it is all about the quantity, not the quality of the people you reach.