Blog # 2 Personal Decision Making

"The Wisdom of Crowds"- Advice Columnist vs The Crowd


When faced with a major decision, I usually confide in family members or close friends. However, it definitely depends on the situation. I usually ask a few people that could possibly relate to my scenario. Asking for advice from a few people tends to give me various outlooks on the situation and a better idea on how to solve the problem. I wouldn't trust the advice from an advice columnist. I think it is important for someone to know an individual personally, in order to come to an accurate consensus. However, I would trust the advice from the crowd more than an advice columnist. I don’t doubt the experience or intelligence of advice columnists; I just don’t see how one person can be educated on all different aspects of life. It has been said that experts often think they know often more than they actually know. Expertise and accuracy are not necessarily related, so it would be unreasonable for me to base an important decision on a stranger who has the potential to lack truth. Regarding relationships, it is impossible for the website, sidetaker.com, to become aware of the complete story of a scenario and therefore lacks accuracy. People have different experiences and intelligence levels. With that said, a solution to a problem is best done by taking advice from a large, diverse, crowd.