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

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant. Groups are better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.

This seemingly counterintuitive notion has endless and major ramifications for how businesses operate, how knowledge is advanced, how economies are (or should be) organized, and how we live our daily lives. With seemingly boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, economic behaviorism, artificial intelligence, military history, and political theory to show just how this principle operates in the real world.

Despite the sophistication of his arguments, Surowiecki presents them in a wonderfully entertaining manner. The examples he uses are all down-to-earth, surprising, and fun to ponder. Why is the line in which you're standing always the longest? Why is it that you can buy a screw anywhere in the world and it will fit a bolt bought ten-thousand miles away? Why is network television so awful? If you had to meet someone in Paris on a specific day but had no way of contacting them, when and where would you meet? Why are there traffic jams? What's the best way to win money on a game show? Why, when you walk into a convenience store at 2:00 A.M. to buy a quart of orange juice, is it there waiting for you? What do Hollywood mafia movies have to teach us about why corporations exist?

The Wisdom of Crowds is a brilliant but accessible biography of an idea, one with important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, conduct our business, and think about our world.

©2004 James Surowiecki (P)2004 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Surowiecki's style is pleasantly informal, a tactical disguise for what might otherwise be rather dense material. He offers a great introduction to applied behavioral economics and game theory." (Publishers Weekly)

Wisdom for leaders

This is a very interesting theory and read (though not new any more).
Personally I found the financial markets chapters too long and elaborated and at times even self contradicting.
Nevertheless, it is a recommended read mostly to leaders and people-managers; at least if you can take your lessons out of it. but I also recommend it to others...

Makes sense

Entertaining explanations of why crowd observations make sense. The author has great examples and they work.

Thought-provoking material; narrator stunk

I heard about this book via Forbes top-ten business books list and usually find nonfiction books better on recording. I would definitely listen to a snippet of the book before buying. Unlike some other reviewers, I found the narrator boring and frankly sounded like a computer-automated voice. I'll never listen to another audiobook read by that narrator.

Entertaining nonfiction

I was entertained and informed. There were new ideas for me, as I haven't read or studied in this area, and it was presented well enough to follow in audio. I missed being able to go back and go over an idea or conclusion again- I'm using the Cretive Muvo for audible books and if a lorry passes you and you miss a bit your choices are to listen to the whole book again or miss that section for ever.

Fascinating Findings About Crowds, Smart and Dumb

The decisions, choices, and estimates made by crowds--i.e. by aggregating or averaging their selections--can be better, more accurate, or more reliable than the selections of their smartest members. For example, averaging the selections of a crowd can result in a selection that none of its constituent members actually made, and can nevertheless be the best selection. One big takeaway from this book, however, is that crowds work best when they contain true diversity of thought. A crowd may look diverse, in color, gender, or whatever; but if the thinking of their members follow the same grooves, it reduces the wisdom of the crowd.

Excellent Listen

Excellent listen. Held my attention with narrator. A recommended listen for teens and adults for wisdom and opportunity.

A good survey of research about groups

James Surowiecki isn't trying to make a point in this book - he's simply surveying what social scientists have learned about the behavior of groups and crowds over the last 50 years or so. He gives examples of different kinds of problems that groups try to solve, and he explains (broadly) when groups do better than individuals and when they don't. It's very interesting stuff, and told in an extremely accessible, conversational style. Laymen will easily comprehend everything. The narrator is very good, and does a good job of capturing the author's laid-back tone.

Actual social scientists, however, should not expect any radical or revolutionary new insights from this book.

The Wisdom of Crowds

A rare bird, this book lives up to its hype. The examples and breadth of subject matter is breathtaking. Surely this must have taken years to write. The breakdown of categories is a marvel. It has moved me to rethink a world of assumptions.

An Excellent Book

I found this book to be a very interesting look into how the many are smarter than the few. The author presents a large amount of material with a crisp pen and brief writing style.

This work distills the research of many scientists and authors into a very readable text that explains some of the social phenomenae we experience every day.

This is a book that I wanted tell people about.

highly recommended

Not only is this stuff interesting, it really works. I tested this with some of my friends in guessing various things, like the number of steps from point a to point b. Just amazing... A great lesson about the value of the crowd's wisdom vs. the traditional view of glorifying experts.