John Heywood once said, "Two minds are better than one," and this can be true when people need the best solution to a problem. In Suroweicki's book, The Wisdom of Crowds, he expresses a common belief that if a group works toward a common goal, the results will far surpass those of a single individual. The Law of Averages helps determine a group's ability to collaborate their ideas into a single outcome, which supports Surowiecki's ideas that a larger group of people can provide many accurate predictions. In his book, Surowiecki explains how predictions and probability are some of the many key ingredients for achieving good results (10). Similarly, the Law of Averages states that groups will predict the correct outcome after a series of trial and error, which supports Surowiecki's ideas. While working in a team can provide better solutions in some situations, many characteristics can hinder that group's success. More importantly, for any group to come to collectively wise decisions, some knowledge is one of the necessary characteristics among its members. Another key factor that has sometimes contributed to the success of a group's response is the fact that they can sometimes rely on a single individual to lead the group in the right direction to achieve results (30). Overall, no matter how brilliant a single individual may be, large groups of people actually turn out to be smarter than a select few. Therefore, groups are better at solving problems, developing opinions, making informed decisions, and predicting outcomes (22). Surowiecki believes that crowds are more intelligent when they work in teams, even though it may seem more realistic to work individually (XVII). Surowiecki goe......middle of paper......an actually become. Along the same lines, the Law of Averages has also been successful because the probability of information is what makes it work. In fact, we can use Surowiecki's concepts and the Law of Averages in the same way, taking people's opinions and then averaging them to get the best possible answer. Overall, my discussions of Suroweicki's concepts and the Law of Averages are indeed addressing the larger question of how both of these ideas relate to how a group processes information to reach a solution. More importantly, I think the truth behind the Law of Averages and the wisdom of crowds is that the best outcomes come from many independent individual decisions. Works Cited Surowiecki, James. The wisdom of crowds. New York: Random House, 2004. PrintWal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Director Roberto Greenwald. Brave New Theatres, 2005. DVD.