The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How… (2004)

Should have known better with a comparison to Malcolm Gladwell on the front.

A mildly interesting idea with some neat examples, some misquotes and distortions, and nothing much aside from anecdotal evidence. This would have worked out much better as an article rather than a book. ( )

Excellent read! I will need to re-read it often to remind me of the message that groups made up of diverse, independent, individuals can make good decisions - even better than the expert. ( )

Another interesting title, The Wisdom of the Crowds. Another long subtitle: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few. These authors writing about the social media intentionally choose a very catchy, crisp and sharp title for their books. For example: The Long Tail, Everything is Miscellaneous, Here Comes Everybody, Free, Too Big to Know. But note also their way too long subtitles wherein you observe some striking similarity.
Having noted this, I should say this book did not live my expectations. I think the book would have been better without the example about Francis Galton's findings about the wisdom of the crowds to accurately guess the weight of an ox. My problem with this example is that in guessing the weight of the ox, there is little intelligence (cognition) exerted. But it seems this example is widely cited whenever there is an article about wisdom of crowds. But reading through the rest of the text, it is such an interesting read, with striking analysis and discussions. The most interesting discussions are about independent decision making and the presence of disagreements rather than mere consensus. I want to use this book for my research in relation to metadata. This can be read along with Wikinomics which is even more fascinating with more practical examples. ( )

The Yang to the Yin of 'The Cult of the Amateur'.

In a way, it's difficult for me to render any sort of judgment on "The Wisdom of Crowds." I don't know a lot about economics; I made the mistake of majoring in the humanities. Heck, I think I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't read "Freakonomics." Still, I don't think "The Wisdom of Crowds" is about economics per se. Rather, it wants to encourage its readership to take a good, hard look at its assumptions about group dynamics and intelligence. Surowiecki posits that groups, if they are balanced, independent, and have a reliable method of aggregating their opinions, can often make better decisions than any of their members. What he's really fighting, though, two cultural cults: that of the individual and that of the technocratic expert. He's taking issue with the old saw that a committee is an organism with twelve legs and no brains. I could go on, but you get the picture. In this I think he succeeds.

In a roundabout way, Surowiecki is also making an argument for the efficiency of markets and the advantages of personal choice. He does this without going the full Friedman, which should make his arguments more palatable to those who know him from his columns for the New Yorker, who – let's be honest – may be more willing to examine markets' failures than their successes. Surowiecki's takes time to discuss dangers like panics and bubbles, but remains steadfast in his belief that a group of people bringing their own perspectives to a problem may be better equipped to find a solution than any one individual. From another perspective, what Surowiecki is doing in "The Wisdom of Crowds" is urging humility: if none of us can know everything all the time, the next best thing is for all of us to contribute a little to a group-oriented solution. This book is, pun intended, recommended to everyone. ( )