Noise

by Daniel Kahneman

calls to shut down air travel from affected regions and to take aggressive steps to close the borders. The political pressure to move in that direction

dealing with Ebola, President Obama and his team had no real precedents on which to draw. Important political decisions are often good examples

System noise is inconsistency, and inconsistency damages the credibility of the system.

There is surely noise in everything we do.

“Your judgment depends on what mood you are in, what cases you have just discussed, and even what the weather is. You are not the same person at all times.”

while multiple independent opinions, properly aggregated, can be strikingly accurate, even a little social influence can produce a kind of herding that undermines the wisdom of crowds.