I was perusing through my corner of the blogosphere today and ran across Chris Brogan's new project, Dad-o-matic. It's a cool multi-author blog covering mens' perspective on raising kids. I don't have kids but I love the concept and some of the perspectives. I came to a particularly hard stop on Guy Kawasaki's "The Top Ten Lessons My Dad Taught Me". Rule number 3 was "Don't Follow the Crowd" and went on to say:
"Don’t follow the crowd. Initially, I thought that he was saying that most people were stupid–and I agreed with him. But I now realize that he was telling me not to follow the crowd because the crowd “mentality” can make smart people do dumb things. This is why I don’t believe in the “wisdom of the crowd” to this day."
Now, in social media, following the 'wisdom of the crowd' is a very popular concept but while there are aspects of that thinking which I agree with, I've never gotten on the bandwagon in quite the same way as some others. Guy's post articulated for me why. Crowds can do great things but crowds can be really dumb too. What's the difference?
I think it all boils down to leadership. Crowds that are inspired to do great things - WWII, Habitat for Humanity, and the Tienanmen Square protests are all examples of how crowds of people can do amazing things. But we only need to look toward Rawanda and other examples to see how crowds can also take humans to new lows. So then it really becomes important who the crowd is listening to and taking guadiance from - President Kennedy inspired a whole generation of Americans to make choices that made America better and stronger as a nation.
Crowds without leadership and inspiration are not necessarily better or worse than individuals. But a crowd can become both more than the sum of its parts and less than its lowest common denominator depending on how it is inspired. WE can definitely be smarter than ME (one of Mzinga's favorite lines) but...not without some good leadership.
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