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Review Of James Surowiecki's The Wisdom Of Crowds

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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 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

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Throughout history groups have worked together to profit and develop relations. In Asia the countries and groups of people developed the Silk Road, in Rome, the districts owned by the lords that governed them worked with the roman emperor to create a road system. But, these countries who have worked together have sometimes manipulated each other and took advantage of each other. Therefore, when groups work together they can create positive ideas, but in the end have negative outcomes.

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In The Dangers of Groupthink, Naomi Karten provides the reader with a few of many examples on how they can avoid the dangerous phenomenon that is, Groupthink. Karten expresses her opinion by stating, “Diligently avoid a no-criticism culture and a no-criticism decision-making policy.” (The Danger of Groupthink, 2). Being able to avoid a nonconstructive environment is an extremely courageous step that can ultimately lead to one’s success. However, for one to achieve such a large task takes a tremendous effort, and requires one to place both their feelings and well being on the line.

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In essence, groups become more effective when information is attained through specialized

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In group situations of two or three people out of four can influence the mentality or decision making of the one person that disagrees, but does not want to feel left out so they give in to the peer pressure. An example would be when people are buying things online they would search up reviews and that would cause them to change their opinions on whether to buy the item or not, the person did not have to get influenced by the opinion of a stranger ,but when you see someone disagree in a certain situation it makes people examine the problem more than it should be. Herd mentality is done in a subconscious matter, take a look at your life or even the way you text a person, if you text the person for a long enough time you will start to develop a similar style or tone of writing or talking. Society is prone to herd mentality due to the lack of individual ideas and not wanting to think for themselves. An example of herd mentality would be one of the many challenge that are done online such as; Juju challenge, 100 layers challenge, cinnamon challenge, no brushes challenge, kids makeup challenge..

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