Business Quote by James Surowiecki
“I started in business journalism from the outside, so when I started writing about markets and business, I was struck by the fact that markets seemed to work well even though people are often irrational, lack good information and are not perfect in the way they think about decisions.”
About This Quote
Source Book: The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, 2004
Markets function despite individual irrationality and imperfect information because collective outcomes can be surprisingly accurate.
In simple terms: Markets work even when people are flawed.
Key Takeaway
Trust collective intelligence.
Themes
economics
psychology
decision making
Mood
critical
inquisitive
Type
theoretical
practical
When to use this quote
- stock trading
- policy making
- team projects
- public opinion polls
Key Concepts
emergent behavior
information aggregation
bounded rationality
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you ensure diverse input?
- When does crowd wisdom fail?
A Different Perspective
Collective errors can still lead to good results; not always reliable.
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
![“If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.” quote by Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bad/bertrand-russell-69_acquire_if-the-state-does-not-acquire-supremacy_1379.jpg)