The Wisdom of Crowds
by James Surowiecki
Anchor; Reprint edition (August 16, 2005)

Summary

The basic thesis of this book is that the collective wisdom of a large, diverse group of individuals can generally lead to better decisions, conclusions, insights and results than what an individual or small group can typically achieve. Another theme, however, also runs throughout the book that could be called 'The Stupidity of Crowds'. In point of fact, what this book is really about is how people, either individually or in groups of varying sizes, reach conclusions. These can be either positive (correctly estimating the weight of a bull) to very negative (mass hysteria incidents). The real question that the book tries to address is, what causes these results?

This book takes a broad look at research in the area and, using examples, stories and some anaylsis, takes the reader through various situations where individual, groups and crowds exhibited wisdom or it's opposite.

Rating and opinion

The difficulty of rational decision making is evident everywhere in business. Any book that can shed light on the underlying causes of ineffective decision making, and can present reasonable ways to address these causes is welcome. Suroweiki makes a good attempt in an easily accessable yet fundamentally sound book.

Related

Read as Well: Reinventing the Bazaar, Fooled by Randomness

Read Instead: none

Footprint

336 pages
Time to Read: 3 nights
Content Density: 30% (good)
Interest Factor: High