The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

I disagree with the main premise of this text, and yet this is still the best book on organizational development and basic sociology that I have ever read! I absolutely loved this book and am very glad that I took the time to read it.

The first section of the book is devoted to the (relatively weak) theory that the collective wisdom of a group of average Joes acting independently will outperform the greatest experts. Hmm. The examples are things like guessing the weight of a steer, at a country fair in ye olde England where presumably all of the attendees were experts in the weight of steers; guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar; small decision markets that are extremely complicated to participate in (I've tried the Google one) and would thus only attract a certain type of participant, as they require a lot of time for no pay-off, or only a pay-off of intangibles, etc..

However, slogging through the unconvincing argument in favor of populism will bring you to the meat and potatoes of Organizational Development theory and to a treasure trove of marketing and sociology studies and historical anecdotes. For example, I had no idea that the Quakers are credited with creating the modern fixed-price system that capitalism rests on , as opposed to bargaining a different price with each customer. The book is a fantastic collection of multidisciplinary tidbits.

So, while I would still rather consult with an actual expert rather than with a group of people at a tailgate party, I would highly recommend this book - and it sure is a nice book to be seen with.
:)