How can groups make good decisions? | Mariano Sigman and Dan Ariely | Day 50 – 100 Days 100 Thoughts

Hello Folks !!

I am crossing the halfway mark with this post. And this is the perfect TED Talk that I wish to share on this occasion. We always think bad about Group thinking and I personally used to feel that group thinking hinders our progress. But in this interesting TED Talk, Mariano Sigman and Dan Ariely give us a glimpse of how having a conversation can lead us to make better decisions. We have seen how peer pressure kills creativity, how herd mentality destroys unique ideas, and so on. Watch this wonderful talk and explore the great things collective decisions can bring to the table.

Welcome Back !!

This is one of the most interesting topics I have ever come across. More than that, I wanted to share this because of the change in the way I have been working in recent times. There were only two ways I used to work, either will be underestimating myself which is overestimating every other, and listening to them as if they knew everything. The other way is listening to none and failing in my work miserably.

I badly wanted to find a middle ground and I started discussing my plans and ideas with different groups. The groups I discussed had an entirely different ideology, approach and they are different people. By discussing my ideas with them I am able to get a fresh perspective of the idea. I started looking at things differently. At the same time to keep me away from the biases, I discuss things with multiple groups so that I see different perspectives. One important thing I ensured is that in all these exploratory phases I shouldn’t let my opinion vanish in thin air.

Just like the speaker says at the beginning of the talk, “crowds are wise when there’s independent thinking.” The overall idea and the process will be beneficial only if the crowd is independent thinkers.