The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

Scott E. Page

Princeton University Press, 2007 - Business & Economics - 424 pages

In this landmark book, Scott Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another. The Difference is about how we think in groups--and how our collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts. Why can teams of people find better solutions than brilliant individuals working alone? And why are the best group decisions and predictions those that draw upon the very qualities that make each of us unique? The answers lie in diversity--not what we look like outside, but what we look like within, our distinct tools and abilities.


The Difference reveals that progress and innovation may depend less on lone thinkers with enormous IQs than on diverse people working together and capitalizing on their individuality. Page shows how groups that display a range of perspectives outperform groups of like-minded experts. Diversity yields superior outcomes, and Page proves it using his own cutting-edge research. Moving beyond the politics that cloud standard debates about diversity, he explains why difference beats out homogeneity, whether you're talking about citizens in a democracy or scientists in the laboratory. He examines practical ways to apply diversity's logic to a host of problems, and along the way offers fascinating and surprising examples, from the redesign of the Chicago "El" to the truth about where we store our ketchup.


Page changes the way we understand diversity--how to harness its untapped potential, how to understand and avoid its traps, and how we can leverage our differences for the benefit of all.

Contents

• Diverse Perspectives How We See Things: 23
• Heuristics Do the Opposite: 52
• Interpretations Our Own Private Flatland: 73
• Predictive Models Judging Books by Their Covers: 90
• Measuring Sticks and Toolboxes Calipers for the Brain: 103
• DIVERSITYS BENEFITS BUILDING FROM TOOLS: 129
• Diversity and Problem Solving Darwins Brass Tacks: 131
• Models of Information Aggregation Mindless Signals: 175
• Diversity and Prediction The Crowd of Models: 197
• DIVERSE VALUES A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS OR IS IT?: 237
• Diverse Preferences Why Tapas: 239
• Preference Aggregation Four Not So Depressing Results: 255
• Interacting Toolboxes and Preferences Go Ask Alice: 285
• THE PUDDING DOES DIVERSITY GENERATE BENEFITS?: 297
• The Causes of Cognitive Diversity Family Vacations College or Identity?: 299
• The Empirical Evidence The Pudding: 313
• GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE: 337
• A Fertile Logic Putting Ideas to Work: 339
• The Ketchup Questions: 371
• Notes: 377
• Index: 411

Popular passages

Page vii - ... in the development of the Earth, in the development of Life upon its surface, in the development of Society, of Government, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language, Literature, Science, Art, this same evolution of the simple into the complex, through successive differentiations, holds throughout. From the earliest traceable cosmical changes down to the latest results of civilization, we shall find that the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, is that in which Progress essentially...

Page 1 - You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

Page xix - Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question Oh, do not ask, "What is it?".

About the author

Scott E. Page is Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics at the University of Michigan and an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. He is the coauthor of Complex Adaptive Systems (Princeton).

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies; Volume 45 of The William G. Bowen Memorial Series in Higher Education Series; Volume 45 of The William G. Bowen Series
• Author: Scott E. Page
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2007
• ISBN: 0691128383, 9780691128382
• Length: 424 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Diversity & Inclusion; Business & Economics / Economics / Theory; Business & Economics / Human Resources & Personnel Management; Social Science / General