Description
New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a counter-intuitive truth: large groups of people are remarkably intelligent. And often better at solving problems, fostering innovation, and predicting the future than the elite few. From guessing the weight of an ox at a country fair to the mechanics of the stock market, Surowiecki demonstrates that when you pool diverse, independent opinions, the collective reaches a level of accuracy that no single expert can match.
Through the lenses of psychology, economics, and history, The Wisdom of Crowds demystifies how markets work, why corporations exist, and how we can organise society to harness the brilliance of the many. It is a celebratory look at the heroic idea that the best answers aren’t hidden in a corner office, but are distributed among us all.
Surowiecki provides the scientific backbone for why Cunningham’s law actually works. Crowds are wisest when they are correcting errors and aggregating disparate pieces of information. Cunningham’s law is the wisdom of crowds in high-speed, aggressive action. By providing a wrong starting point, you trigger the collective’s natural urge to correct, refine, and aggregate toward the truth.
This book is the guide for navigating the input phase of any project. It teaches you that you don’t need to be right immediately, you just need to engage the crowd’s corrective mechanism. If you want the truth, don’t look for an oracle. Look for a crowd and give them something to fix.
