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Why you get better and faster answers from SAS-L.
ah, this is why I go on vacation:
to pick up The Economist and read a good book review:
The Wisdom of Crowds:
Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few
and How Collective Wisdom
Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations
by James Surowiecki (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385503865/qid=1086371926/
sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2954967-7716001?v=glance&s=books
read the opening paragraph of the article:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%27%2980%2CQA%2B%21%
20%40%214%0A&CFID=29724142&CFTOKEN=2ac5208-4a5ed343-c9e8-41c7-bdb2-97409
043bcf1
\begin{quote} from The Economist review
... a paradox: often, the multitude knows better than the wise
individual.
... case after surprising case
where the amalgamated views of a crowd
reach a more accurate conclusion than the single expert does.
%{direct quote from book:}
"Under the right circumstances,
groups are remarkably intelligent,
and are often smarter than the smartest people in them."
... that corny game show, "What Wants to Be a Millionare?"
Across a large sample of shows,
those ... who took the option to call an expert for an answer
got it right almost
65% of the time.
But the ones who asked the studio audience
-- hardly a gathering of gurus --
did far better; they got it right
91% of the time.
....
%{direct quote from book:}
"With most things, the average is mediocrity,
With collective intelligence, it's excellence.
You could say it's as if we've been programmed to be
collectively smart."
....
The two ultimate tests of the wisdom of crowds are the market and
democracy.
....
Democracy gives him more trouble,
perhaps because he can't quite believe
that American voters make sensible choices.
But ultimately he is on the side of Thomas Jefferson, who said,
"State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor.
The former will decide it as well and often better than the later
because he has not been led astray by artificial rules."
A crowd of ploughpersons is thus wiser than a plurality of professors.
\end{quote}
Quite a hilarious set of commentary and examples in the review.
Recommended reading for those who see SAS-L as
Collective Wisdom
Ron Fehd the macro maven CDC Atlanta GA USA RJF2@cdc.gov
and occasional ploughperson
do not fold, spindle, or mutilate -- IBM punch card
... the consensus process
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