James Surowiecki

What the investment community does like is short-term measures designed to boost share prices.

— James Surowiecki

The desire for reinvention seems to arise most often when companies hear the siren call of synergy and start to expand beyond…

— James Surowiecki

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

— James Surowiecki

The autocracies of the Arab world have been as economically destructive as they've been politically repressive.

— James Surowiecki

The important thing about groupthink is that it works not so much by censoring dissent as by making dissent seem somehow improbable.

— James Surowiecki

The challenge for capitalism is that the things that breed trust also breed the environment for fraud.

— James Surowiecki

The oil market is especially sensitive even to a hint of expansion or contraction in supply.

— James Surowiecki

Framing effects can be very influential, and to the degree that you can think of a task as close rather than distant,…

— James Surowiecki

“No decision-making system is going to guarantee corporate success. The strategic decisions that corporations have to make are of mind-numbing complexity. But…

— James Surowiecki

Procrastination also can be a way of self-handicapping: if you don't do a great job, you can always say to yourself, "If…

— James Surowiecki

Markets work best when there's lots of information available and a historical track record to go on; they excel at predicting things…

— James Surowiecki

For most Americans, work is central to their experience of the world, and the corporation is one of the fundamental institutions of…

— James Surowiecki

If you work for Google or Apple, stock options give you a chance to share in the increasing value of the company.…

— James Surowiecki

I do think that procrastination evolved in humans for good reasons. If you're trying to stay alive as a human being on…

— James Surowiecki

If small groups are included in the decision-making process, then they should be allowed to make decisions. If an organization sets up…

— James Surowiecki

In effect, dividing your attention means that neither (or none) of the things you're working on is really getting the full effect…

— James Surowiecki

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

— James Surowiecki

We assume that good-looking people are smarter and more effective than they really are, and that homely people are the reverse.

— James Surowiecki

I tend to delay writing by doing more research - it's really the act of writing the piece that I have the…

— James Surowiecki

The stock market has an insidious effect on C.E.O.s' moods, because of its impact not just on their companies but on their…

— James Surowiecki

Congressional Republicans themselves have vehemently defended the idea that preexisting conditions should not be used to deny people insurance.

— James Surowiecki

Older people do a better job of managing their impulses, and so they're better able to put off putting off.

— James Surowiecki

In some respects, the video-game business is a lot like the razor business, which follows a simple model: Give away the razor,…

— James Surowiecki

The ban on sports betting does exactly what Prohibition did. It makes criminals rich.

— James Surowiecki

Defense contractors are able to reap tremendous profits while rarely confronting the risks for which those profits are supposed to be the…

— James Surowiecki

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

— James Surowiecki

Of course, plenty of people don't think that guaranteeing affordable health insurance is a core responsibility of government.

— James Surowiecki

Patrimonial capitalism's legacy is that many people see reform as a euphemism for corruption and self-dealing.

— James Surowiecki

If private-equity firms are as good at remaking companies as they claim, they don't need tax loopholes to make money.

— James Surowiecki

I do think to some extent multitasking is a way of fooling ourselves that we're being exceptionally efficient.

— James Surowiecki

Traditionally, tours were a means of promoting a record. Today, the record promotes the tour.

— James Surowiecki

There does seem to be some evidence that as people get older, they procrastinate less, perhaps because they feel the pressure of…

— James Surowiecki

All things being equal, letting people make decisions for themselves will produce smarter outcomes, collectively, than relying on government planners.

— James Surowiecki

A long-term crisis, after a certain point, no longer seems like a crisis. It seems like the way things are.

— James Surowiecki

By the time of the '90s boom, CEOs had become superheroes, accorded celebrity treatment and followed with a kind of slavish scrutiny…

— James Surowiecki

Politically speaking, it's always easier to shell out money for a disaster that has already happened, with clearly identifiable victims, than to…

— James Surowiecki

Tough times have always lent themselves to nativist sentiments and closed-door policies. But in the case of highly skilled immigrants, these policies…

— James Surowiecki

You'll sometimes hear from people that they actually do a better job of getting their work done when they have a lot…

— James Surowiecki

Until the nineteen-seventies, Western countries paid little attention to corruption overseas, and bribery was seen as an unpleasant but necessary part of…

— James Surowiecki

In industries where a lot of competitors are selling the same product - mangoes, gasoline, DVD players - price is the easiest…

— James Surowiecki