The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it.
Interpretation
Collective intelligence is often less effective than the individual intelligence of its members.
In this quote, Terry Pratchett humorously conveys the idea that a crowd's collective intelligence tends to be disproportionately low compared to the number of individuals in it. This suggests that while large groups can often be seen as wise or insightful, they can also lead to poor decision-making due to the dilution of individual thought and reason.
In practice
During a speech on group decision-making, one might refer to this quote to illustrate the potential pitfalls of relying on crowds for wisdom.
And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.
They've got something they do it with, I think it's called a mocracy, and it means everyone in the whole country can say who the new Tyrant is. One man ... one vet. ... Everyone has ... the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extraction. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lots of other people. But everyone apart from them. It's a very enlightened civilization.
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.
Any fool could be a witch with a runic knife, but it took skill to be one with an apple corer.
People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they're standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don't look quite like real science. But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of excitingly fashionable chaos and complexity. And summer isn't a time. It's a place as well. Summer is a moving creature and likes to go south for the winter.
I adore the struggle you carry in yourself. I adore your terrifying sincerity.
We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy. (10)
There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.
A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross.
Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.
The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.
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