The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds is an interactive explainer about how crowds can be brilliant or foolish, depending on how people influence each other. You poke at simple models, change how much the crowd listens to each other, and watch the collective result get better or worse.
The page keeps things concrete. Rather than lecturing on network theory, it gives you small experiments and then explains what just happened. You start to see why some groups make good decisions, why others spiral, and how the shape of the network around them matters as much as the individuals inside it.
It is by Nicky Case and lives at ncase.me with his other playable explainers. If you liked The Evolution of Trust, this is a natural next stop, and it makes good reading for anyone who has wondered why the internet sometimes gets everything wrong at once.
Tips for getting the most out of it
- Try each experiment more than once with different settings.
- Read the short explanations between the toys.
- Pair it with The Evolution of Trust.
Questions about The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds
What is The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds?
It is an interactive explainer from Nicky Case about how crowds make good or bad collective decisions. You play with simple models and see how social influence changes the outcome. You can find it at ncase.me, and odd-sites.com lists it as a long rabbit-hole visit.
How long does it take to play?
It is a longer visit, since there are several interactive models to try. Plan on a good while if you want to explore each one, though you can stop whenever you like. We check the link daily, so you can see whether it is still alive.
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