The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James Surowiecki is a book on crowds and groups. Surowiecki has four elements to a successful and wise group, which are: diversity of opinion, independence of action, decentralization, and aggregation. The five examples that I found interesting and unique to explain are his topics of diversity, independence, decentralization and aggregation, cooperation, and coordination. While my opinion of group work is not a positive one Surowiecki manages to deliver an argument for the wisdom of crowds that is both thorough and entertaining in his choice of examples. The main topic seen on every page of the book is crowds. Predominately the theme is the positive effect crowds have on people and the world at large. How people make better decisions when working in a group or how a group will make a better decision because they are in a group rather than working alone. However, James Surowiecki does talk about the failure of crowds. Situations where groups are not the best or even the formation of groups that are not the most well-structured or put together to yield the best results. Surowiecki talks about which situations groups work best in and even provides examples by drawing parallels one would …show more content…
Surowiecki brings in behavioral studies that show a lack of cooperation when an individual will give up something just to see someone else suffer. This concept of cooperation is uniquely similar to coordination in that they are both so close together and yet there is enough difference between the two to make them both