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His further reading list includes Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds, but his post doesn't look like he read it himself. Surowiecki has a long list of requireme
by billswift 14y ago
His further reading list includes Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds, but his post doesn't look like he read it himself. Surowiecki has a long list of requirements for the "wisdom of crowds" to actually be helpful, for one example the individual judgments need to be independent, that the post ignores. Without the restrictions you get different failure modes, like bubbles, runs, and traffic jams.
- chmike 14y agoOr election mistakes. Democracy assumes people's choice is independent, though it is not. We are still very exposed to manipulation.
- smartbear 14y agoThe essay was intended to be a light-hearted and readable intro to the concept, not an exhaustive definition that takes an entire book!
- billswift 14y agoAlmost everyone has at least heard the phrase "the wisdom of crowds" by now. The most important part of the idea, and the one most people are not familiar with, are the (fairly severe) limits on its usefulness. I wrote a review of the book for Amazon, and one thing I pointed out is that it was a much better balanced treatment of the subject than I had expected from all the hype about the idea that I had previously read. The hype is already all over the place, and has been for years, there is no need to add to it.