"Wisdom of Crowds"- Part 1

Onto the next book in our reading series- "Wisdom of Crowds," written by James Surowiecki and first published in 2004. Before enrolling in Beyond iCelebrities and glancing at the syllabus, I had never heard of "Wisdom of Crowds," and honestly would have never read it if it weren't assigned. However, judging by our past book by Malcolm Gladwell,"The Tipping Point," (which I really enjoyed,) I was excited to delve into "Wisdom," figuring it has to be at least on par with "Tipping."

The basic gist of the book is this: Surowiecki is trying to prove

(using a plethora of examples and discussions) that, simply, groups are better off at making

decisions than one or two people (hence the title- "Wisdom of Crowds,"- in crowds lie wisdom.) Surowiecki does a good job illustrating this point by citing the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," in his explanations- which in turn gave a better idea of what he was saying. The 'Ask the Audience' portion of the

show, where contestants can ha

ve the entire audience poll a question, is what Surowiecki talks about specifically. Most of the time the audience answers the question correctly, which in turn lies their collective 'wisdom.'"

Other specific examples cited in "Wisdom of Crowds" aide Surowiecki's argument greatly, including the idea of Google- when you search for something, the result is a mass of information which you can then boil down and swift through to find just what you are looking for (i.e. the right answer.)

Something Surowiecki delves into for a good chunk of "Wisdom of Crowds" is the idea of diversity (in fact, he devotes the entire second chapter to this idea.) In large 'crowds,' diversity is an easy thing to find- in a mass of people, there are different ideas/opinions and more generally- different type of people. In a small, like-minded crowd, this is much harder to find- so instead, you'll get a lot of the same ideas/opinions rather than just one. The idea of "groupthink," relates to this as well. The more everyone influences one another, the more like-minded everyone becomes- which has it's pros and cons. Pros, because every can agree- but con's because that like-minded group is inclined to make the same mistakes over and over again.

PART ONE TO BE CONTINUED....

Tipping Point- Part DOS!

Sorry this "Tipping Point" response is so late! Anywho, onto part two of my response- or as I'd like to call it "Tipping Point' Response: Tip With a Vengance.*"


Continuing on with the book, I just have to reiterate how much I absolutely was enthralled with it. Gladwell is a great writer who brings up a TON of great points. It's interesting in a very unique way- he makes the reader think about life/the world in a way he/she never has- and that, in itself, is special. I'm calling the entire experience "Gladwellian."


Having said that, I thought the next half of the book was pretty redundant. He touch on some new stories, anecdotes, etc, but for the most part what he was trying to prove was already proven. Perhaps if he restructured the book a tad differently it wouldn't feel like he rehashed a lot.

Gladwell has an interesting idea about the number 150, which seemed a bit of a stretch to me. He explains that groups/fan bases under 150 people have a different quality than if they are over 150 people. Once a group/fan base goes over the 150 mark, the fan base which once was tight nit and starts to change into something that can launch something into success- the "Tipping Point," in this case. He cites the book "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood " to state his case.



The next dissection is that of AirWalk shoes, and how they skyrocketed from a niche brand (A la "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" book readers,) to a national success. I have to admit, I had never heard of AirWalk shoes, until reading this book. Maybe the reason why I had never heard of them is that the "cool" level of the shoes declined significantly after a series of mistakes by their publicity and management team. Gladwell writes that they were once available to small stores and then "sold out," after being sold in Department stores- and then only started offering one line, in a greedy effort to save money.







Finally, Gladwell tries to dissect the confusing teenage mind and uses the juxtaposition of teen suicide and teen smoking. Both, he says are risky things that teens do (which would make for a great anti-smoking PSA.) Gladwell states that teens are much more eager to copy one another, and the reason for a spike in suicides and a spike in smoking is just that these teens are trying to emulate on another. The downside is- when they start smoking cigarettes, they become addicted and when they commit suicide.... they die. I loved the juxtaposition of cigarettes and suicide in this chapter and thought it was Gladwell's most effective. Suicide and smoking are both harmful things to do your body and their relationship to one another should be examined more. It can even be said (though it's sort of a stretch,) that every time you smoke a cigarette you're committing suicide in a small way.


The last chapter is more or less a wrap up and delves a bit into breast cancer and African-American women. He chronicles a case of where they were given info about breast cancer at a hairstylist, instead of at a doctor's office or on the street- and how women are much more perceptive to hear such information with a hairstylist- where they are most comfortable. Gladwell states that this is more of a "band-aid" solution to the problem and while effective, doesn't fix the fact that breast cancer kills many, many women. Overall, the entire last chapter was a redeeming and great way to wrap up the book.


*"'Tipping Point': The Squeak-uel" works too.

COMING SOON: My look at "WISDOM OF CROWDS."

Favorite Comedic Social Change Video

Hey!

I know I'm jumping the gun on this assignment, but I figure I get it out of the way before I post my next Tipping Point response and "Wisdom of the Crowds" response.

The v

ideo I chose is no surprise to anyone that knows me. I am an avid fan of comedy, particularly SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.

My video is...

Amy Poehler's Palin Rap!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/39808/saturday-night-live-update-palin-rap#s-p2-sa-i3

(I would have embedded it, but Hulu doesn't allow embedding on blogs- weird!)

This rap and the Palin, Tina Fey, SNL firestorm was a great lesson between the relationship of comedy and politics, and comedy and technology. These videos spread like wildfire after they i

nitially aired and did a variety of important things- made people aware (and introduced them) to Sarah Palin and gave the public a perception (albeit somewhat distorted,) of who she is as a person.

It also showed that Palin had a sense of humor (judgin

g by the fact she appeared on SNL TWICE in the run-up to the election, compared to Obama who never appeared- aside from a lone appearance in 2007.) Lastly, SNL's started getting their best ratings in years and show became as culturally relevant, reminding everyone of the days of Will Ferrel's Bush impression, the mocking of the Clinton Sex scandal, Dana Carvey's Bush Sr. Sketche

s and Chevy Chase's goofs on President Ford- all great in their own right.

Thanks!

Tipping Point- Part Uno

First off, I am so glad that Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" was chosen as one of the books to study and discuss. I had heard about how interesting all of Gladwell's (the crazy looking man with the odd hair to the left)books were in the past (including "Blink," and "Outliers," the latter of which I plan on reading next,) but for some reason never picked any of them up to review myself. I'm glad that this class gave me an excuse to.

Right off the bat, I love Gladwell's style of writing and the ideas that he presents are totally fascinating. In a nutshell, all of Gladwell's books are about life and how things work out and why. Further than that, they are hard to explain to someone who never read them what the underlying idea or thesis is. For "The Tipping Point," it centers around trends and why some things "hit" at the right time and become smashing successes, and how some things "miss" and why that is.

The cool thing about "The Tipping Point" is that Gladwell tries to make his cases for his various theories by using real life examples. In the first few pages, he discusses the success of Hush Puppies- weird shoes that set off a crazed fad in the 1980's and then later fizzled away.

The tipping point from the title comes into play where he tries to explain the key moments of exactly WHEN and WHY certain things happen- such as the Hush Puppies craze, or something darker like the spread of syphilis. He goes onto outline three rules of these tipping points, which include Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. In reading about these rules, I couldn't help but think to apply it to certain fads and things that are "hot" today including Facebook and Twilight. In looking at those specific examples, one can find exactly how and why they "hit" using Gladwell's there rules.

Gladwell employs various other examples to illustrate his point, including SESAME STREET (which, according to him, was a change in the way children's television was produced,) and the decline of violence on the mean streets of New York City throughout the 1990's (where he says small changes made the difference, instead of sweeping ones- arguing that sweeping change doesn't always work like a charm.)

Thanks so much for reading. PART TWO coming in the next day or two...

RL