![]() In The Wisdom of Crowds, Surowiecki begins with the annual West of England Fat Stock and Poultry Exhibition, an exhibition in which local farmers and townspeople gathered to appraise the quality of each other’s livestock. On one of the days of the exhibition, a large ox was placed on stage for a weight-guessing competition. The townspeople would place wagers or get a stamped and numbered ticket for sixpence where you filled out your name, address, and guess. Those with the best guesses would later receive prizes. After all the guesses were received, none of the 787 guesses were correct. A British scientist named Francis Galton took all of the guesses and found the mean of their guesses to be 1,197 pounds when the ox actually weighed 1,198 pounds. This book is about the collective intelligence of groups of people, no matter what situation you are in or decision you have to make, any group of people can help you make the right choice. Throughout this book, Surowiecki uses scientific studies, clever anecdotes, and some of his own statistical analysis to convince his audience that the wisdom of a crowd is superior to that of an individual expert. At first glance, I thought this book was mundane and cliche, but as I read on, I realized Surowiecki’s take on intelligence was completely valid. When one of my friends in college gave me this book to read, I was extremely skeptical of the message the book carried. I felt that an individual expert would always be more knowing than a group of non-experts and the “follow the leader” mentality would be the downfall of any group. The author actually brings up this concept and agrees with it completely, but refutes it in a way that is pure genius. -ES, grade 12
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June 2020
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