The problem is that groups are only smart when the people in them are as independent as possible. This is the paradox… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
I think people don't understand compound interest because typically no one ever explains it to them and the level of financial literacy… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
One key to successful group decisions is getting people to pay much less attention to what everyone else is saying. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The fact that industries wax and wane is a reality of any economic system that wants to remain dynamic and responsive to… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
You might say that economic history is the history of people learning to manage risk. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably smart - smarter even sometimes than the smartest people in them. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
We assume that good-looking people are smarter and more effective than they really are, and that homely people are the reverse. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Congressional Republicans themselves have vehemently defended the idea that preexisting conditions should not be used to deny people insurance. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Behavioral economists have shown that a sizable percentage of people are willing to pay real money to punish people who are taking… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
For a crowd to be smart, the people in it need to be not only diverse in their perspectives but also, relatively… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
I started in business journalism from the outside, so when I started writing about markets and business, I was struck by the… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
In practice, downsizing is too often about cutting your work force while keeping your business the same, and doing so not by… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Now, modern economies have a very effective mechanism for deciding if salaries are really too high: it's called the free market. That's… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Unfortunately, there is something of a flaw in this idealized picture of the way the scientific community discovers truth. And the flaw… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
In terms of productivity - that is, how much a worker produces in an hour - there's little difference between the U.S.,… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
There are lots of people who believe there may be at least some genetic component to procrastination, and even if there isn't,… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The fact that cognitive diversity matters does not mean that if you assemble a group of diverse but thoroughly uninformed people, their… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Older people do a better job of managing their impulses, and so they're better able to put off putting off. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Of course, plenty of people don't think that guaranteeing affordable health insurance is a core responsibility of government. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
All things being equal, letting people make decisions for themselves will produce smarter outcomes, collectively, than relying on government planners. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
There does seem to be some evidence that as people get older, they procrastinate less, perhaps because they feel the pressure of… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The world's central banks and the International Monetary Fund still have vaults full of bullion, even though currencies are no longer backed… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Being out of a job can erode people's confidence and their sense of possibility; and employers, often unfairly, tend to take long-term… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
From a social point of view, it's beneficial that homeownership encourages commitment to a given town or city. But, from an economic… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
On the simplest level, telecommuting makes it harder for people to have the kinds of informal interactions that are crucial to the… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The smartest groups, then, are made up of people with diverse perspectives who are able to stay independent of each other. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
It may be that the very qualities that help people get ahead are the ones that make them ill-suited for managing crises.… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Patrimonial capitalism's legacy is that many people see reform as a euphemism for corruption and self-dealing. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The smartest groups, then, are made up of people with diverse perspectives who are able to stay independent of each other. Independence… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
If someone really wants my company's business, why shouldn't he be able to do everything he can - including paying me off… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Unlike fuel-economy standards, the most common method of reducing demand for oil over the past thirty years, a gas tax doesn't tell… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The essence of procrastination lies in not doing what you think you should be doing, a mental contortion that surely accounts for… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
When Americans are asked to rank professions in terms of honesty and ethics, insurance agents routinely end up near the bottom of… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Linux is a complex example of the wisdom of crowds. It's a good example in the sense that it shows you can… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
As technology improves, on-screen avatars look more and more like real people. When they start looking too real, though, we pull away.… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Being unemployed is even more disastrous for individuals than you'd expect. Aside from the obvious harm - poverty, difficulty paying off debts… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Intellectual-property rules are clearly necessary to spur innovation: if every invention could be stolen, or every new drug immediately copied, few people… — 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
