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96th out of 129 books
—
53 voters
The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done
by
Peter Miller
What ants, bees, fish, and smart swarms can teach us about communication, organization, and decision-making
The modern world may be obsessed with speed and productivity, but twenty-first-century humans actually have much to learn from the ancient instincts of swarms. A fascinating new take on the concept of collective intelligence and its colorful manifestations in some o...more
The modern world may be obsessed with speed and productivity, but twenty-first-century humans actually have much to learn from the ancient instincts of swarms. A fascinating new take on the concept of collective intelligence and its colorful manifestations in some o...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
August 5th 2010
by Avery
(first published January 1st 2010)
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Interesting book examining how collectively organized insects and animals use their group as a problem solving tool. It appears that there is an inherent, almost mathematically predictable, advantage group living insects and animals have unrelated to, indeed divorced from, individual thought process. This is in large part involved with shared information -- albeit not by any human-like method, rather by such activity as laying pheromone trails, or dance, etc. Certain groups – most notably bees,...more
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Having recently watched a huge flock of geese wonderously whirling, circling and landing in a field near Milford-on-Sea, my finding this book was very timely. Hyberbole rules in the title however. "Understanding", yes; it does a great job of explaining the science behind self-organisation in ants, bees, termites and starlings. The mechanisms are not easy to grasp but are clearly described: "local knowledge", "decentralised control", "distributed problem solving", "multiple interactions" and emer...more
This is a fun, entertaining book about how animals and people act in crowds. Peter Miller shows clearly how ants, bees, termites, locusts, birds and fish usually act much smarter in a crowd than any individual. They do this instinctively, without the need to be taught how to behave. In some situations, people also are smarter in a group than any individual. But not always; there are times when a group of people will be dumber than the dumbest individual. Several anecdotal examples are given in t...more
This was a fascinating book. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 was that it kinda ended funny. The description of swarm or herd behavior for each kind of animal was quite good and the explanation of bees and starlings was excellent. There's also an explanation of how crowds can get out of control and turn higher level thinkers like humans into something not much more intelligent than an ant because the herd takes over. (I read it on the kindle).
There are also all kinds of lessons you can draw...more
There are also all kinds of lessons you can draw...more
This is one of those rare, great books that manage to talk about many different fields of science and weave them together. It uses the habits and organizations of social animals (bees, ants, starlings, etc.) and relates it to how people interact with one another. It touches on everything from fluid dynamics (how locust swarms and human stampedes happen) to supply chains, to computer intelligence.
The book is structured in chapters that discuss different types of animals, and it's got plenty of a...more
The book is structured in chapters that discuss different types of animals, and it's got plenty of a...more
The flaw in this book is that it tries extremely hard, again and again, to relate the natural behaviors of large groups back to human life and, especially, corporate culture. This is such a mistake. To waste such a rich vein of animal phenomena by simply shoehorning it into management advice robs the subject of its own natural beauty.
I'm not saying that there are not clear applications of swarm behavior in nature to what we as humans do, and there is certainly a lot we could do better by emulati...more
I'm not saying that there are not clear applications of swarm behavior in nature to what we as humans do, and there is certainly a lot we could do better by emulati...more
As a book about really cool things that animals do, it was very interesting and informative. As a book about how to apply those cool things to the realm of business, it was less so. There are enough differences between people and animals, and it seems that human conscious effort to prevent systemic failure might mess with the whole proposition of 'following simple rules to achieve surprisingly robust and complex and systems' too much.
A non-fiction companion to Prey. This book highlights quite a few interesting practical applications for smart swarms that I had never heard or thought of. While enjoyable and interesting, this book does feel a little light on content. It feels like there's a lot more information that the author decided to gloss over, maybe in the interest of appealing to a broader audience.
An interesting, but not on the whole revolutionary look at how human systems and organizations can learn from the animal kingdom. I felt like I've read this book before in shorter articles and papers. I skimmed the middle chapters and was unsurprised by the findings.
On the whole, a perfectly acceptable path of introduction to complex system theory but only if complemented with other works to flesh it out a little more.
On the whole, a perfectly acceptable path of introduction to complex system theory but only if complemented with other works to flesh it out a little more.
It was an interesting to see how animals organize and get things accomplished and how the way they do things can be applied to our lives. The best part was a study the author referred where a group of people were divided into teams for a competition to complete a task. Some teams had one or two members who were particularly skilled in the activity and other teams were deliberately void of anyone with expertise. As it turned out the teams without an expert out performed the teams with experts. Th...more
Solid science so far + very readable...interesting framing of "crowds" as individuals making decisions without leadership. Possibly supporting the Tao Te Ching suggestion: lead by being the lowest point -- or suggesting listening is leadership...
I recommend reading if you are interested at all in group dynamics. The section on groups going wrong is weaker than the rest of the book. Now I want to read a good book on effective leadership, but glad to have the Smart Swarm insights to mull.
I recommend reading if you are interested at all in group dynamics. The section on groups going wrong is weaker than the rest of the book. Now I want to read a good book on effective leadership, but glad to have the Smart Swarm insights to mull.
A good, quick read. This book left me in even more admiration for nature and the inventiveness of evolution. It's also fascinating to learn how we humans are learning to use nature's rules to solve some of our own problems. Worth reading for its educational and idea-generating bent.
Fascinating!
Among my first thoughts: I wonder what would happen if we could persuade everyone in the house to follow one simple guideline: If you encounter something that is dirty or out of place, clean it up or put it away. Every time.... We could eliminate chores altogether that way (well, except perhaps for laundering sheets).
This is one of those books that I'm going to want to read a second (or maybe even a third) time. All sorts of interesting stuff in here... it's almost too dense to absor...more
Among my first thoughts: I wonder what would happen if we could persuade everyone in the house to follow one simple guideline: If you encounter something that is dirty or out of place, clean it up or put it away. Every time.... We could eliminate chores altogether that way (well, except perhaps for laundering sheets).
This is one of those books that I'm going to want to read a second (or maybe even a third) time. All sorts of interesting stuff in here... it's almost too dense to absor...more
It is ok, it present some good idea on collaboration. But this book heavily lean toward the good thing about collective intelligence, less of the bad thing, doesn't mean it is not there, it just a few example.
But overall it is an ok book.
But overall it is an ok book.
This was an interesting book. From info about the waggle dance that bees use to communicate to each other about decisions the hive needs to make to neat quotes like "none of us are as stupid as all of us" in reference to the dark side of groups, I learned and was entertained.
Easy reading book linking the power of swarms/masses (ants, bees, termites, locusts, fish, etc) to our world (e.g. web 2.0, design of robotics, group behaviour, economy bubbles, etc).
EXCELLENT. from tickling locusts to creating cgi orcs in the lord of the rings movie trilogy, swarms are used for almost anything you can think of. this book also explains how flocks of birds and schools of fish move in concert. recommended for everyone!!
It's very hard to find good popular science books that are talking about features of everyday life. The book achieves to educate and entertain at the same time.
A very interesting first read on the theory of crowds and complex systems of organisms. Not terribly complex, but a great introduction to the field.
Fascinating studies of insects and how they work together to accomplish group goals, and how these principles have been applied to human situations.
Lots of good examples of "swarms" and case studies, but not a lot of take away. I feel like I learned that simple rules can yield big results when applied by a lot of actors. But so what? When I'm looking at my problem, how do I know what my rule should be and how to go about forming, testing and applying it.
Some really good insight here. Seemed to be padded out and ran out of steam near the end, but valuable nonetheless.
A nice book that combines science and management. Honestly, I wasn't aware of the fact that we humans could learn a lot from ants, honey-bees, termites and birds on problem solving!! An interestting book! A 3.75/5 for this!
Ants communicate by laying down tracks of pheromones - others can follow the scent. many go out, find food and come back. Others follow their track. The food with shortest distance will have the most ants following it and laying down pheromones; others sense its heavily trafficked.
Bees dance telling the angle to the food source, and the length of the dance tells distance.
Locusts begin to swarm when the population increases. It begins a fury to find food. The begin to bump into each other and wil...more
Bees dance telling the angle to the food source, and the length of the dance tells distance.
Locusts begin to swarm when the population increases. It begins a fury to find food. The begin to bump into each other and wil...more
Heres the link to my review http://lesc.net/blog/book-review-smar...
Really interesting concepts
Fascinating insight into the nature of collective behaviour, showing how different species, including our own, can benefit or suffer from various swarm patterns.
Excellent book
Interesting anecdotal stories, on the one hand about nature, on the other hand about problem solving in the real world. Throwbacks to the US / Canada blackout in 2003, making of the Lord of the Rings, Boeing aircraft testing, etc. Not convinced about the overarching premise of the book, which is to say we can consciously learn from swarm bahaviour in nature. Feels a little like Wikinomics or a Malcom Gladwell book: great anecdotes, but not very convincing in the grand scheme of things.
I found this book really interesting as I never really thought about how organisations like flocks of starlings or swarms if honeybees make decisions. I guess I just thought they had no real thoughts of their own and animals like human beings wouldn't have anything in common with them, but this book showed me how individual bees maintain their opinions in a swarm and how people can lose their identity in a crowd.
Highly recomended!
Highly recomended!
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