So, yeah, the guy Surowiecki is exploring the idea that whatever it is you are needing to do the smarter answer is more likely to come from a crowd of punters than a cabal of experts. This seems counter-intuitive because the crowd don't necessarily know anything about anything. But some of them do and some of them don't. Those that don't have the foggiest cancel each other out (say by one guessing that the answer is -10 while the other guesses 10). He illustrates this working in various down to earth situations like the Google algorithm and ant behaviour.

This is interesting reading for anyone that has any contact with people! The applications are endless from politics to web tools and while it may or may not be persuasive to you, the book certainly makes you notice crowd behaviour when you are walking down Princes Street or standing at a bar.