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James Surowiecki writes the popular and insightful “Financial Page” column for The New Yorker magazine. He edited Best Business Crime Writing of the Year (2002), a compilation of the best columns and articles from a year in which several powerful CEO’s scandalously fell from grace. But his best-known work is The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations (2004). In that book, Surowiecki argues – using case studies and anecdotes from business history, government, science, sociology and everyday life – that “under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent ... often smarter than the smartest people in them.” With this argument that collective intelligence can produce better outcomes than the expertise of individuals, he directly challenges current prejudices against the supposed dangers of group mentality, offering a more hopeful view of organizational behavior. Before joining the New Yorker, he wrote “The Bottom Line” column for New York magazine and was a contributing editor at Fortune. He was a finance columnist for Slate from 1997-2000.
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