Groups are only smart when there is a balance between the information that everyone in the group shares and the information that each of the members of the group holds privately. It's the combination of all those pieces of independent… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromising. An intelligent group, especially when confronted with cognition problems, does not ask its members to modify their positions in… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Lack of confidence, sometimes alternating with unrealistic dreams of heroic success, often leads to procrastination, and many studies suggest that procrastinators are self-handicappers: rather… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Downsizing itself is an inevitable part of any creatively destructive economy. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
In the business world, bad news is usually good news - for somebody else. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
You might think of consumption as a fairly passive activity, but buying new products and services is actually pretty risky, at least if you… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Corporations hope that the right concept will turn things around overnight. This is what you might call the crash-diet approach: starve yourself for a… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Instead of mindlessly tossing billions at or taking billions from the Net as such, investors should be spending their time making sure that it's… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
If you thought the advent of the Internet, the spread of cheap and efficient information technology, and the growing fragmentation of the consumer market… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The financial crisis of 2008 was not caused by investment banks betting against the housing market in 2007. It was caused by the fact… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
A consumer-finance agency is a good thing, but it would do well to teach consumers a simple lesson: if you don't understand the deal… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
What corporations fear is the phenomenon now known, rather inelegantly, as 'commoditization.' What the term means is simply the conversion of the market for… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Making loans and fighting poverty are normally two of the least glamorous pursuits around, but put the two together and you have an economic… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
