the Unwisdom of Crowds

Travels with Rhody: James Surowiecki on the Unwisdom of Crowds

The question for all of us is, how can you have interaction without information cascades, without losing the independence that's such a key factor in group intelligence? First one: the best thing to do is to keep your ties loose. You're better off, and the group is better off, if the ties are looser, because loose ties minimize the influence of those around you. Second, keep yourself exposed to as much information as possible. Injecting some level of randomnesss into the system is a good thing.