Wisdom of Crowds (Med&Gov)

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/

I liked all of the questions posed at the home page on the website. Yeah, why is that quart of orange juice waiting for me??

But, basically what is being said is that the wisdom of crowds is a theory that groups of people can solve certain types of problems better than a single expert.

Also, I thought the four qualities of smart crowds were interesting and made a lot of sense when you thought about them. To be a smart crowds, they have to be diverse, decentralized, have a way of summarizing their decision(s), and be independent of the larger group at the same time (I assume to not be easily swayed by others' opinions).

I also like that bias and paying too much attention to what others think can lead to group stupidity. This shows that you need to figure out what you think but still consider others' opinions on something. You can't not include someone's thoughts just because they don't agree with yours. I think that's why our nation is so f***ed up - no one will stop and consider anyone else's opinions if they aren't just like our own. They need to realize that this will ultimately lead to stupidity or self-destruction. Yes, being an intolerant, biased a**hole is very self-destructive behavior. This could end up killing us all.

So groups are good at solving factual problems and compromising? I suppose that's understandable. But, I'm defintely not letting even a smart crowd fly me to Greece next year or perform surgery on me.

I liked this quote: "And in a broader sense, I think the book suggests that the more diverse and free the flow of information in a society is, the better the decisions that society will reach." This is because they have more information and more accurate information at their disposal when making critical decisions that affect all people of their nation. And, in doing this, I think they would be more likely to take other's opinions into account and perhaps overlook their own biases.

All together we will know more than the individual because everyone in thei group has their own diverse information and experiences to bring to the table - i.e. they are adding to the flow of information in our society.