James Surowiecki Quotes

Paradoxically, the best way for a group to be smart is for each person in it to think and act as independently as possible.

Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise.

The problem is that groups are only smart when the people in them are as independent as possible. This is the paradox of the wisdom of crowds.

The smartest groups, then, are made up of people with diverse perspectives who are able to stay independent of each other. Independence doesn't imply rationality or impartiality, though. You can be biased and irrational, but as long as you're independent, you won't make the group any dumber.

The fact that cognitive diversity matters does not mean that if you assemble a group of diverse but thoroughly uninformed people, their collective wisdom will be smarter than an expert's. But if you can assemble a diverse group of people who possess varying degrees of knowledge and insight, you're better off entrusting it with major decisions rather than leaving them in the hands of one or two people, no matter how smart those people are.

To be successful, we need everyone to think independently and work through disagreement to decide what's best.

A swarm finds the solution people best agree upon. It optimizes collective support, whereas a poll tells us how we disagree.

Should we have a leader or should we think for ourselves? Obviously the latter in principle. But-sometimes there lies a gulf between what is theoretically right and that which is practical.

I think people do have their own minds.

The smartest groups, then, are made up of people with diverse perspectives who are able to stay independent of each other.

When you think about being contrarian, you have to think about - how is it that smart people will disagree with me, disagree with me ...from a position of intelligence, and there is something that I know that they don't know, that will actually in fact play out to be true.

I had always been scrupulously careful to avoid the smallest suggestion of infant indoctrination, which I think is ultimately responsible for much of the evil in the world. Others, less close to her, showed no such scruples, which upset me, as I very much wanted her, as I want all children, to make up her own mind freely when she became old enough to do so. I would encourage her to think, without telling her what to think.

Americans who read and think are patriots of the first order. The kind who know enough to roll their eyes whenever anyone tries to claim sole custody of the flag and weild it as a blunt instrument. There are as many ways to love America as there are Americans, and our country needs us all.

In part because individual judgement is not accurate enough or consistent enough, cognitive diversity is essential to good decision making.

One key to successful group decisions is getting people to pay much less attention to what everyone else is saying.

We wouldn't be successful if we didn't have independent thinkers who can argue and then resolve their arguments.

Think deeply about things. Don’t just go along because that’s the way things are or that’s what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.

Crowds of minds can be wise, but crowds of bodies just aren't.

The first move of leadership is learning to think for yourself.

People do have a - people, unlike politicians, are allowed to change their minds. People are allowed to look back and say, you know what, all things considered, I don't think that was the smart move.

Being in charge sometimes means making people mad. Some days you have to overrule even the best advice, because you think it is not right.

I believe very firmly in the principle of free agency - people making their own decisions and doing what they think is right.

In healthy families, children discover (through being listened to) that what they have to say is important and that their experiences and ideas (and they themselves) have worth. They are encouraged to think for themselves, express opinions, and make decisions for themselves. Parents supporting them in standing on their own two feet and doing what they think is right. Trusting and gaining confidence in themselves, they develop an inner locus of control.

The only effective way to help well-intentioned, intelligent persons to do the best they can in raising children is to encourage and guide them always to do their own thinking in their attempts at understanding and dealing with child-rearing situations and problems, and not to rely blindly on the opinions of others.

Forbid a man to think for himself or to act for himself and you may add the joy of piracy and the zest of smuggling to his life.