Book Review: No Contest -- The Case Against Competition

No Contest raises eyebrows of even those already pre-disposed to believe competition in American society is out of control. Alfie Kohn works through and offers evidence toward disproving nearly every pro-competition argument in American society's copious play book while systematically destroying much of the bad science and outdated beliefs surrounding his subject. In most situations where competition is thought to be inevitable, it's really artificially created. Cooperation is far more common than competition in nature. Particularly in American society, it reduces productivity, destroys relationships, and undermines self esteem for both winner and loser alike. It not only makes play less fun, but, by definition, makes play impossible. Children prefer cooperative to competitive games when given examples of both and a choice, and children and adults alike consistently perform better when cooperating. Even strenuous defenders of competition admit that it leads to an endless, painful quest for an unattainable goal with drug-like addiction characteristics. It leads directly to mindsets that destroy friendships, waste resources, oppress women, and greatly increase aggression by fostering cheating and an Us-vs. Them mindset. In short, there is very little evidence to support the idea that mutually exclusive goal attainment is ever better than the alternative, while in most instances substantial evidence suggests precisely the opposite. Very few will emerge from this book unscathed.

Book Review: The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

It seems to be common wisdom that a crowd is generally dumber than the sum of it's parts. In this fascinating expose on the power of group decision-making, James Surowiecki offers substantial evidence that the opposite is often true. Under the right conditions, aggregate results from group decisions are not only more accurate than the average of the group, but generally outperform even the group's smartest and most expert members. Surowiecki outlines and gives examples of the kinds of problems that lend themselves to group decision making, lays out the conditions necessary to harness the technique's power, and points out when and why things are likely to go wrong. He covers financial markets, political and statistical predictions, small groups, applications for business and why they aren't often tapped, and implications for democracy. From correctly guessing the weight of a bull to locating lost submarines to predicting (very accurately) the outcome of an election, we see how a disparate group of people can create not only a dead-on estimate, but often do so without anyone in the group actually having gotten the right answer. After this fascinating read you'll never look at the crowd on the subway the same way again.