Social Animal: #1--Overview

Overview: It’s no startling surprise to find out that we’re all social animals, each belonging to our tribes, whatever we call them—families, companies, churches, or political parties. However, David Brooks, vaunted journalist and author, scrapes off the layers of paint atop that old truism down to its bare metal, exposing three key insights: 1) the power of the unconscious; 2) the centrality of emotions; and 3) the deep interpenetration and interconnectedness of our minds. Using the power of a narrative to weave in Brooks’ prodigious experience in politics and people, as well as the depth of his observations and interpretation of scientific research, the reader gets a decent story packed with solid facts. It’s a bit like reading excellent historical fiction; but, this book is about how we live today. Using two fictional characters, Harold and Erica, to carry the narrative and provide the scaffold for his story, Brooks borrows from the tradition of parable and fable, thus weaving extraordinary scientific research into a story we can actually remember. And these two characters emanate from two very different social classes—Harold from the upper middle class and Erica from a family of immigrants. As such, they come at life very differently, yet somehow connect with each other in what might be described as a rich cocktail of humanity. The author raises the old Greek notion that we suffer our way to wisdom. Such wisdom operates below the surface of our conscious in our intuitions, emotions, and biases that formulate our thoughts while we navigate the choices of life. In essence, we’ve all been given a gift of the unconscious—but until now have not realized its power so well. Brooks talks about a lot of skills that operate as we play out these three insights of unconsciousness, emotions, and interconnectedness. This week, I’ll explore his book in detail

Wisdom of Crowds: Post #3--Diversity

Diversity: Engage a group of Marines, housewives, engineers, and dog catchers to address a public policy and you’ll get a much more robust decision than with a bunch of politicians sitting around a table. Why? Diversity of experience (cognitive diversity) and knowledge when aggregated tend to come up with better decisions. In fact, diversity begins to act like a “market” which makes far better decisions than individuals or homogenous groups. This cognitive diversity means that by adding people to the decision-making team who know less than experts but who bring different skills and perspective actually improves the group’s overall performance. Diversity ensures that alternative perspectives are brought to bear on the issue that might otherwise get lost. And the smaller or more formal an organization, the more important the power of diversity is to the process because it lacks the power and magnitude of a large market. All this is to say that a wise, diverse group will outperform a CEO anytime.