The In-crowd

I'm reading The Wisdom of the Crowds. The basic premise is that when you take the opinion of a diverse, independently-deciding group, they will usually make better decisions than any single member of the group could. The author is very careful to distinguish between mob mentality and what he's discussing, which he believes can be very beneficial. The key elements for a wise crowd are diversity of opinion, independence, decentralization, and aggregation. Without these characteristics, a crowd can easily turn irrational and cause all kinds of trouble.

Since this is my last week at the big corporate bookstore I've been working for the last five months, this is probably the last "business" book I'll be reading for a while. Reading outside of my interests has been an eye opening experience. It made me realize how focus I'd become and how my reading habits had suffered for it. Diversity is necessary to continue growing. Having the leisure time to read whatever suits my fancy is something I have to take advantage. There might come a time when I don't have the time, or energy, to read for recreational purposes.

Most likely I'll just go back to reading comic books, or watching movies based upon comic books.