The Wisdom of Crowds

I didn't find this book that insightful. There was a fair amount of questionable material and I've seen the same information presented elsewhere with more data.

Pretty awesome book!

Tap that resource biatch!!!!

This was entirely not what I expected. I only read it because my brother had it on the new Kindle... ends up showing how individual thinking can lead to good group decisions in many areas, companies and the market. Proper critical thinking in appropriate circumstances and arrangements of groups, can lead to fantastic results. This shows how.

This book will tell you the advantages of large groups with diverse opinions as opposed to small homogeneous groups. Surowiecki makes the argument that large diverse groups can often better predict future results in everything from elections to curing infectious diseases. His main argument is that centralization and group think can inherently doom the successes of any organization. He mentions...more

This book will tell you the advantages of large groups with diverse opinions as opposed to small homogeneous groups. Surowiecki makes the argument that large diverse groups can often better predict future results in everything from elections to curing infectious diseases. His main argument is that centralization and group think can inherently doom the successes of any organization. He mentions the CIA before 9/11 and NASA during the Columbia Space Shuttle Crisis as examples to back up his argument. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about organizational management and how market principles can be applied in the correct fashion to solve problems that are inherent in organizational culture.   hide

Interessant teori - der illustreres gennem en række eksempler. Afvekslende og underholdende skrevet. En af de mest tilgængelige fagbøger, jeg har læst...

I'm a strong believer in the dignity, respect, and value of every individual. This book shows through empirical research how magic can be created by the bits and fragments of individual value coming together.

Fantastic start and hypothesis, but loses focus about three quarters of the way through. This is where I started tuning it out unfortunately.

The author cites various examples to prove that collective (but independent) decisions of a motley mix are wiser than the decisions of any single expert. Cognitive diversity makes a crowd wiser but this very wisdom can turn into madness (eg. stock market bubbles) when cognition is reduced to mere imitation. When does one know that one is in the midst of a bubble? The book falls...more

The author cites various examples to prove that collective (but independent) decisions of a motley mix are wiser than the decisions of any single expert. Cognitive diversity makes a crowd wiser but this very wisdom can turn into madness (eg. stock market bubbles) when cognition is reduced to mere imitation. When does one know that one is in the midst of a bubble? The book falls short on explaining how to identify a bubble. Are we in the midst of a US$ bubble or a Gold bubble (Feb 2009)? Time will tell since the only expert wise enough to unearth the truth is the market (crowd) itself.   hide