Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Wisdom of Crowds:
1. In what way does Surowiecki's central proposition—that a crowd is smarter than its smartest person—seem counter-intuitive? Consider our culture, which is steeped in the twin beliefs of individualism and meritocracy.
2. What does Surowiecki mean when he says crowds are "information minus error"?
3. Care to comment on this: The more power you give a single individual in the face of complexity and uncertainty, the more likely it is that bad decisions will get made." How does that remark challenge the idea of "expert authority"? Does that mean that decisions are best made by committees?
4. What is the reason that crowds are smarter and make better decisions than individuals?
5. What are the basic problems, or obstacles, that all groups face and that must be overcome if a group is to act with intelligence?
6. What conditions must be met if groups are to reach sound decisions? How difficult are these conditions to meet?
7. Talk about how groups fail to attain wisdom? How does Surowiecki suggest this happens?
8. In terms of group failure, discuss the NASA Challenger disaster. How does that tragedy fit within this book's framework?
9. Contrast Surowiecki's theory with "group think," or crowd psychology, in which groups tend toward conformity, often to the detriment of sound decisions. What does Surowiecki believe is necessary to guard against group think?
10. Consider your personal experience with groups and organizations—personal or professional. Of those groups, do any meet the necessary conditions of Question 6? How do decisions get made in the groups you belong to?
11. The Wisdom of Crowds was written four years before the 2008 collapse of the housing bubble and subsequent global recession. How would (does) Surowiecki explain the irrational behavior of Wall Street and Main Street?
12. Which of the numerous anecdotes which Surowiecki includes in his book do you find most intriguing? Do his case studies sufficiently support his ideas? Might the author be open to the charge that he chooses only those exaples that support his position?
13. Talk about the ramifications of crowd wisdom for businesses, governance, science, and everyday life—walking down a busy sidewalk, driving in traffic, or the audience on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Does the theory have application to your own life?
14. Can you think of examples where Surowiecki's therory of crowd intelligence might not apply? Say, in situations that undergo continual change—warfare, consumer preferences, growth in technology?
15. Does Surowiecki adequately justify (or prove) his thesis...at least to your satisfaction?
(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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