Why people recommend it
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki is an influential examination of how large groups of diverse individuals can collectively possess greater intelligence and problem-solving capacity than individual experts. The book has been referenced widely by various commentators and researchers over the decades. On The Diary Of A CEO, Simon Sinek mentioned the work while analyzing how experienced individuals navigate critical crisis decisions. On the How I Write podcast, Michael Mauboussin and David Perell discussed the book in relation to market efficiency and information aggregation, with Perell noting how remarkably well Surowiecki's core ideas have endured and provided fertile ground for decades of further exploration. Venkatesh Rao similarly referenced the text on EconTalk to trace the long-standing conversations surrounding the intelligence of information markets and crowds. Meanwhile, on Timcast IRL, Christopher Coulter brought up the book when debating the limits of centralized expertise and the comparative reliability of decentralized collective judgment, illustrating its enduring relevance across finance, psychology, and public discourse.
Who recommended it
- Michael Mauboussin Recommended
- Simon Sinek Discussed
- David Perell Discussed
- Venkatesh Rao Discussed
Michael Mauboussin — 2 mentions
“Fast-forward, and this also ties into the work at the Santa Fe Institute, but Jim Surowiecki writes The Wisdom of Crowds and the ideas have been percolating for a while.”
“is is using some of the language from Jim Swiggy's great book the wisdom of crowds which came out probably in 2004 2005”
Simon Sinek — 1 mention
“There was a book called Oh, it was The Wisdom of Crowds. I think it was that one. I think it was The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.”
David Perell — 1 mention
“And then also the wisdom of crowds just shows up over and over and over again. And I think it's a good testament to how deeply you can mine a worthy idea for years, for decades.”
Venkatesh Rao — 1 mention
“I mean you had sort of Ricky with his wisdom of crowds book I think that was 2002 so we've been having this conversation for at least a couple of decades and we now know a lot more”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 1
“gladwell the wisdom of crowds by james sir uh how you pronounce it”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (4: passing, ad reads, own books)
“That James wrote a book called The Wisdoms of Crowds. It was a hit in case you didn't keep up.”
“James has written for uh about economics for Outlets like Fast Company the Atlantic the New Yorker and is the author of the book The Wisdom of crowds”
“James has written for about economics for Outlets like Fast Company the Atlantic the New Yorker and is the author of the book The Wisdom of crowds”
“so I would read a lot of pop psychology books from back in the day wisdom of crowds Thinking Fast and Slow all those books are we now you know”