I learned it in Psychology 101. An anthropologist had discovered that humans could maintain about a maximum of 150 social connections.
When I worked in travel publishing, back around the birth of Facebook, we came up with the idea for a travel-related version. We thought we were absolutely genius. It would be a huge money maker. Interns did the research, plans were thought through, a pitch deck was created.
I argued for a cap on connections, a dozen felt right to me. We’ve got twelve pairs of ribs, in the US eggs come by the dozen. So there must have been a good reason for 12. Monetization crept in. My idea was sidelined. The site never launched.
Over a decade later I was rolling high on Instagram. I got caught up in follower count. Surely 1000 times the number I originally had in mind would be my golden ticket. It earned me some privileges and a bit of money. But that never compensated for the people and time lost.