Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.”
– Walter Lippmann
I recently finished reading an excellent book “A Culture Of Growth: The Origin of The Modern Economy “ by Joel Mokyr that answers the question: “Why was Europe the first region to industrialise ?”
With its answer, it makes a prescription for all of humanity.
It also spells out how groups should work and what is a truly democratic spirit .
According to the author, Europe rose to greatness because ideas of free debate and free markets became embedded in everyday life.
The Royal Society, founded in London in 1660, had “nullius in verba”—“take nobody’s word for it”, as its motto. It says a lot.
Such institutions provided platforms for vocal disagreements but everyone recognised that they were -ultimately- working towards a common cause advancing their national and economic agenda.
Geography probably played a role in facilitating this in Western Europe of all places. Fractured into lots of states, a market for talent developed there. Small kingdoms vied with each other for artists, thinkers, traders and innovators. They tolerated dissent and allowed for unions /guilds. The rise of the Protestant church in Northern and Western Europe accelerated this new thinking which began with the Renaissance.
Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest NOT consensus or compromise.
An intelligent group, especially
when confronted with challenges of acceptance and understanding, does not ask its members to modify their positions in order to let the group reach a decision everyone can be happy with.
Instead, it figures out how to use
mechanisms—like market prices, or intelligent voting systems to aggregate and produce collective judgments.
Such output is always better than what one person in the group thinks because it represents what they all think.
Paradoxically, the best way for a group to be smart is for each person in it to think and act as independently as possible.