What does the wisdom of the crowds even mean? According to James Surowiecki, it is the idea that when you take a large amount of people you can find a more accurate answer than any one person can. Surowiecki states that you can select the most intelligent person to solve a problem. However, if you get a large enough group of people, selected at random, they will in fact come up with a more accurate answer to the problem. When reading this book, I had a hard time believing the claim that a group of average people could in fact come up with better conclusion than an educated person. Whatever the situation may be, this one person is trained, educated and has more experience dealing with the given problem. What is it about groups that would allow them to come up with a better solution than someone who is well informed on the given problem? …show more content…
Currently, I have a group in each one of my classes. Each group has some similarities and some uniqueness associated with them. In each group, one person usually separates themselves as the “leader” of the group. The leader of the group can be determined based on being the most driven, outspoken, opinioned, organized or respected. Each of these qualities that makes a leader can also hurt the group. I have learned that people can easily get offended. When certain people take control of a group, others in the group can shut-off with the mindset that their ideas are not respected or heard. They may feel that their time is being wasted due to the fact that the leader will just go with their own ideas. The introverts of the group can easily be engulfed into groupthink. Agreeing with others ideas, viewing them as the safe answer because they won’t have to explain their thoughts or