Comments on: The Crowd is Stupid (You Don’t Need Genius to Beat Them)

By: shreevidya

shreevidya — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:34:21 +0000

I got a good insight of ‘NOT COMPARING SELF WITH OTHERS’. GREAT!

By: Scott Young

Scott Young — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:09:06 +0000

Jen,

I’m not ignoring the fact that people tend to view themselves as being “above average”.

My point about success rates/strategy is twofold:

1. Very few people who pursue something have a significant commitment to it. These are the same people who are often included in so-called “success ratios”. Simply by declaring yourself to be committed indicates you’re above average in many cases (although not all).

However, this is also true of ourselves. How often do we say we’re interested in something but don’t really make any commitment effort. I would say for every 1 pursuit we undertake seriously most people have another 4-5 they claim interest but don’t put serious effort. So the law of averages would state that, if you know one of your pursuits is a serious commitment, it is already in the top 20% for yourself, or likely top 20% of others.

2. The weakness of my theory is that people aren’t accurate guessers of their future commitment threshold. But that’s a whole other challenge.

-Scott

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:19:54 +0000

Might this not be a little illusory? I think most people see themselves as exceptions to the rule and believe that statistics don’t apply to them individually. “The crowd” doesn’t see themselves as the crowd, but as exceptional individuals.

By: Richard Shelmerdine

Richard Shelmerdine — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:32:01 +0000

True, the crow has its own mindset separate from that of the individual. Nobody likes to admit to following the crowd but a lot of us do subconsciously at least.

By: Friday’s Links — A Meaningful Existence

Friday’s Links — A Meaningful Existence — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:56:38 +0000

[...] Scott H Young has written why The Crowd is Stupid (You Don’t Need Genius to Beat Them) [...]

By: 1 hr per day « Anthny

1 hr per day « Anthny — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:58:00 +0000

[...] Scott Young makes the following point in this post: [...]

By: Boris

Boris — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:29:40 +0000

Scott,
Great message! More than worrying about the crowd, the key point is to improve yourself day by day!
By the way, I think that this applies to blogging as well.
How many bloggers are showing up just because they think is a way of getting money easily without “working”?
All the best!

By: Maureen

Maureen — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:02:08 +0000

Labeling people “idiots” make you seem like one yourself. Not too many people I know go around labeling others idiots. Have a little respect for others.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:11:33 +0000

Nice way of putting this bro.

By: JJ

JJ — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:08:35 +0000

Here’s to the Crazy One’s!

I love it all, but here’s a idea. You said:

“If you are focused, committed and have any strategy at all, you are probably in the top 10-20%.”

This is all well and true, and to be honest I’ve heard it before. What I’m interested in is habits. I’m in first year university, and i’m finding that its really easy to get into bad habits (like hitting the sleep button, relying on coffee too much ect.) I’ve recently read Franklin’s Autobiography and he talks about his ‘pursuit of moral perfection’. Keeping this in mind, my question is:

What are the modern, daily habits that put you into the top 10-20% right away? What are simple things that can be done everyday (not meaning they are easy to do) that will automatically put us into the top 10-20%?

My thoughts: Get up early, read everyday (I love your speed reading ideas and posts Scott), exercise, hard focus (Cal Newport talks a lot about that). Yours? Turn it into a future post Scott.

Anyways, I’m new to your blog, and maybe you’ve talked already about this. (One thing I love that Newport does on Study Hacks is link previous articles to the current one. They even open in new tabs… Just a thought)

Thanks,

JJ – Waterloo, ON