add wisdom of the crowds writeup

Author: Matt Swanson

Diff for: _posts/2012-04-01-the-wisdom-of-crowds.md

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+---
+layout: writeup
+title: "The Wisdom of Crowds"
+categories:
+- writeup
+---
+
+![](/static/wisdom-of-crowds.jpg)  
+[The Wisdom of the Crowds][link]   
+James Surowiecki    
+ISBN: 0385721706
+
+---
+
+**What's the point?**  
+It seems like a small group of experts would be best at making intelligent 
+predictions and decisions, but, under the right circumstances, a group of 
+non-experts acting as one can be smarter than the sums of its parts. 
+
+The book outlines the necessary requirements to create a "wise crowd" and provides a 
+variety of examples to demonstrate their effectiveness.
+
+**How was it?**  
+While it was an interesting read, I didn't find much in terms of actionable 
+take-aways. The examples in the book are really interesting (especially a story 
+about a naval officer using crowdsourced predictions to locate a sunken submarine) - 
+but I don't know how I can really use the information directly. 
+
+I suppose you can apply the crowdsourcing idea to things like estimating software 
+projects, but I think it is already obvious that getting a group of people with 
+varied experiences is useful.
+
+**Who should read it?**  
+In the end, it was a very approachable book about behavioral economics (which I like)
+in the same genre and style of Freakonomics and Malcolm Gladwell (which I also 
+like), but those looking for new and pragmatic approaches will probably be letdown.
+
+[link]: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/