Whether you believe you can or not- you are right - Henry Ford.
WISDOM OF THE CROWD says that “The aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group.”
There is an interesting book on it too by James Surowiecki by the same name.
Now lets clarify this in the beginning itself.I believe that all generalizations are false.
Wisdom of the crowd according to me is nothing but orchestration of individual opinions.
Now,What makes a crowd,the people in it.That means that the individual person in a group is the pivotal fragment of the final outcome that is arrived as a group.That the group thrives on nothing but individual independent deduction of the problem statement.
One of the pre requisite of the wisdom of the crowd is the independence of those who are surveyed.
This itself according to me is the major pitfall of the wisdom of the crowd.In the end ,the bottom line is that eventhough it is called the wisdom of the crowd,it is necessary for it to have people who do not get influenced by each other and take independent decisions.apply this to real life situations .
A million experiments might prove that the wisdom of the crowd is far more accurate than the individual opinion.Like the one we had been subjected to in a class of 60,where we were asked to gauge the width of a remote control and the average of the group was more closer than the random three people who were picked.But something that the experiment failed to point out was, what about the few handful of people who have it answered more closer than the so called wisdom of the crowd?Exception but not a rule,one might say.But isn’t it true that the people who are exceptions and lie outside the normal bell curve are the people who will be more effective and influence every one more than anyone else who depend upon the whims of others,who are tied to please others and not themselves and in the process deny themselves the right to love themselves by not doing what they want,who do not love them enough.Those who love themselves are the OUTLIERS.
Does wisdom of crowd hold true in a dynamic and changing environment?The answer is No.
And lets consider that wisdom of the crowd is indeed wise.so?what is wise?
Something that tells one that the correct answer is this and it is the safest answer.where you will be guaranteed a positive result.BORING.
I would much rather prefer an answer where not pre determined and is risky.Feel the adrenaline blow up all along in those crucial moments and shout out loud that “I knew I was right!”,than having the herd menatality(clichéd but true).
I have always been a strong advocate of taking your own decisions and if I apply WotC,it would mean that the people around me,the “crowd” is more wise than me.Come again?Absolute crass.If you think that people around you can take decisions on you much better than yourself then you,my friend,suffer from a grave disease that I will mention in capitals later.
By the way,Ever felt the exhilaration when you have gone against a crowd of thoughts,contemplations and deliberations?Ever felt the urge to prove them, “the crowd” wrong?To prove that what you do is the best for you and none can judge you better than yourself?The sensation of emptiness in your stomach that is dug in by the fear of failure and the anxiety of triumph or the feeling of being up there resting in the bed of roses after traversing through the path of thorns?Proving everyone else wrong and succeeding where people vanquished enough acquiesce that ‘I was wrong and you were right’.The collection of all those I’s is what formed the crowd earlier.
How many times have you gone against your gut feeling to please people and be less effective and satisfied in the process?loved yourself less at the cost of pleasing others?That is what leads to the most epidemic disease in human beings that makes their life not worth savoring .An Epidemic called MEDIOCRITY.
