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The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations | 
 enlarge | Author: James Surowiecki
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  162 reviews
Sales Rank: 45151
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 0385503865
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.38
EAN: 9780385503860
ASIN: 0385503865
Publication Date: May 25, 2004
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Product Description
“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 screw 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 in Paris on a specific day but had no way of contacting them, 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 157 more reviews...
Really Good Book December 2, 2008
Paul R. Murphy IV
I borrowed this book from the local library. I just finished it yesterday. It is a really quick read. I liked how the author used "real world" examples to illustrate his point. I plan to apply many of these techniques into my own business.
 great stuff! November 9, 2008
ponto (Carlsbad, CA USA)
I read this for a MBA class. Out of the stack of books assigned, so far, this is the only one I liked. It is relevant to today's curious questions of how to get crowds engaged, how crowds behave, and why we even care.
I'm trying to teach people to work collaboratively together at work. They "think" they already are doing this but the author gives me new ideas on how to further their participation in team work. I find that in corporate america, people contribute mostly in their assigned role. "I am a business analyst so I don't give my 2 cents when solutioning". Yikes it drives me crazy that they put their single hats on then multi-task when we start talking about something that isn't their specialty.
Anyway, I underlined something on every other page which is a sign that I found this useful and something I will want to learn to apply.
Did I mention how good a writer this guy is?
UNique thinking for these turbulent times October 19, 2008
Leigh Burke - Author of Niche Internet Marketing (Australia)
I love books that take a new and unique idea, thoroughly research and expand the idea, and then present the findings in an entertaining, though-provoking way.
The Wisdom of Crowds is one such book. Other recent titles that have achieved the same type of cult following for presenting unique hypotheses include The Tipping Point, Blink and The 4 Hour Work Week.
You know the old saying, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got, and in the current turbulent economic and socially challenging times, this could not ring more true.
Surowiecki presents a unique concept that the collective thoughts of many will always be smarter than the elite few. He delves deep into this concept, and presents scenario after scenario for which this hypotheses holds true. The arguyment is compelling as it is entertaining and is hard to refute with all the evidence set forth.
Even if you disagree with the central theme, you'd be hard-pressed to say that you didn't find this book an entertaining read. The examples used to support his case alone are entertaining, educational and thought-provoking.
We really do need forward thinkers like Surowiecki to help look at the world's problems from a differing perspective. I really do look forward to Surowiecki's next book.
A great read!
Leigh Burke
Author of Niche Internet Marketing
NICHE Internet Marketing: The secrets to exploiting untapped niche markets and unleashing a tsunami of cash
 Hilarious! September 23, 2008
vlodko (Shoreview, MN USA)
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
Hee, hee, hee! This title and this book sure look funny right now (September 22nd, 2008). Do we follow the wisdom of the crowds on Wall Street (which, if left to its own devises will continue to drive financial titans into bankrupcy), or the machinations of the dubious experts (Paulson & Bernanke), who will put us on the hook for hundreds of billions for years to come?
Maybe it's time to dust off that 19th Century classic "The Madness of Crowds" instead of reading this smug balderdash.
Why don't quantum physicists let a crowd predict the Higgs' particle mass-energy? September 16, 2008
A. Panda (Guadalajara, Mexico)
The author's thesis is that the answers of huge numbers of people tend to be more accurate than those of individuals even if these individuals are experts in the specific subject. He makes clear that this is not true for any specific trial in which one individual might score better than the average, but in a series of trials, the crowd outperforms any individual. The author also explains "magnification " of mistakes by peer conformance, a phenomenon that does not occur when the answer comes from a random crowd. Results from crowds or groups should be averaged and not "consensed" in order to obtain unbiased results.
In general I found the author's thesis quite interesting. During an exercise in class on peer conformance, we have seen, how the group's consensus gave a worse result than the best individual answer. Thus I agree with the author that peer conformance is not generating the best results. On the other hand, I doubt that this approach would work with more complex things than assigning magnitudes like weight, value, size, etc. to a common item. I do not believe that this method would come up with a cure for cancer or even assigning a magnitude like mass to a not so well known object like for example a W boson or a quark. It would also be interesting to find out if the crowds can predict the energy at which the 3 forces of nature unite (or even the four forces, including gravity).
All in all a good book.
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