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"No one in this world, so far as
I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence
of the great masses of the plain people." -- H. L.
Mencken
H. L. Mencken was wrong.
In this endlessly fascinating book, New
Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively
simple idea that has profound implications: Large groups
of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter
how brilliant -- better at solving problems, fostering innovation,
coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.
This seemingly counterintuitive notion has
endless and major ramifications for how businesses operate,
how knowledge is advanced, how economies are (or should
be) organized, and how we live our daily lives. With seemingly
boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki
ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology,
ant biology, economic behaviorism, artificial intelligence,
military history, and political theory to show just how
this principle operates in the real world.
Despite the sophistication of his arguments,
Surowiecki presents them in a wonderfully entertaining manner.
The examples he uses are all down-to-earth, surprising,
and fun to ponder. Why is the line in which you're standing
always the longest? Why is it that you can buy a nut anywhere
in the world and it will fit a bolt bought ten thousand
miles away? Why is network television so awful? If you had
to meet someone on a specific day but had no way of contacting
her, when and where would you meet? Why are there traffic
jams? What's the best way to win money on a game show? Why,
when you walk into a convenience store at 2:00 A.M. to buy
a quart of orange juice, is it there waiting for you? What
do Hollywood mafia movies have to teach us about why corporations
exist?
The Wisdom of Crowds is a brilliant
but accessible biography of an idea, one with important
lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, conduct
our business, and think about our world.
James Surowiecki is a staff writer at
The New Yorker, where he writes the popular business
column, "The Financial Page." His work has appeared
in a wide range of publications, including the New York
Times, the Wall Street Journal, Artforum,
Wired, and Slate. He lives in Brooklyn, New
York.
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