Anthony Sampson Quotes

A committee is an animal with four back legs.

Deliberation is the work of many men. Action of one alone.

A committee should consist of three men, two of whom are absent.

Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably smart - smarter even sometimes than the smartest people in them.

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.

We always carry out by committee anything in which any one of us alone would be too reasonable to persist.

If three come together let them pick a leader.

I don't like the five-person group dynamic. I just never have. It doesn't make sense to me that six people would just sit in a circle and say, 'Now I want approval,' 'Now I want approval,' 'Now I want approval.' 'I have something funny to say,' 'No, I have something funny to say, me!' It's hard to make plans.

You can't get any movement larger than five people without including at least one flippin idiot.

The market turns out to be just one special case of collective decision-making.

“The Wisdom of Crowds” suggests that if enough bumbling people act in concert, they’ll find their way to a less bumbling place.

I'm really interested in working with groups. It's a very simple thing for me, and if I'm given the option to work with two people or 10 or 20 people, I'm going to take 10 or 20. I just think there's so much more I can do with that.

UNU provides a continuous feedback loop of the group's preference for a choice, as well as its conviction. People are adjusting their levels of conviction based on the completeness of their own knowledge on the subject.

There is no more great men; there is only great committees.

The only good thing ever done by a committee was the King James version.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

The psychology of committees is a special case of the psychology of mobs.

So you [Romans] when you have got together in a body, let yourselves be guided by those whom singly you would never think of being advised by.

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.

Joint committees are heat generators rather than light producers.

The problem with communicating without a coordinator is that everyone has to read everyone else's mind.

In wartime the herd instinct rise …

The best … Committees consist of three persons, two of whom are always absent!

Group action -- yes; group thinking -- no.

You wouldn’t want a President to have a cabinet that all agreed with him on everything.