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The smartest person in the room is no longer a person but the room itself.”
The big worry is that when we’re given lots of choices of what to read (or view, etc.), we’ll tend to read that with which we already agree. This further confirms our current beliefs, and perhaps results in our moving to further extremes. This is called the “echo chamber” argument.
So, to make a smart room — a knowledge network — you have to have just enough diversity. And it has to be the right type of diversity. Scott Page in The Difference says that a group needs a diversity of perspectives and skill sets if it is going to be smarter than the smartest person in it. It also clearly needs a set of coping skills, norms, and procedures that enable it to deal with diversity productively.
The big worry is that when we’re given lots of choices of what to read (or view, etc.), we’ll tend to read that with which we already agree. This further confirms our current beliefs, and perhaps results in our moving to further extremes. This is called the “echo chamber” argument.
So, to make a smart room — a knowledge network — you have to have just enough diversity. And it has to be the right type of diversity. Scott Page in The Difference says that a group needs a diversity of perspectives and skill sets if it is going to be smarter than the smartest person in it. It also clearly needs a set of coping skills, norms, and procedures that enable it to deal with diversity productively.
