Anyone here read "The Difference..." by Scott Page

Post Reply New Topic

Has anyone read: "The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies "? I read about it about in another book, where the pre-prodution manuscript title was "Cognitive Diversity....". This sounds intriguing, I would like to look on the bright side of AS more often than we do at WP.

I myself understand the power of cognitive diversity on a personal level. I noticed that since I moved to a closed-minded, reactionary small town that I have felt unvalued. In the great commercial centers of the world, my uniqueness was always an asset. And though the vast majority of the world's people live in small town or rural environments, very little of the great inventions or improvements to mankind come from these places. That is not a coincidence, IMO, those places dis-value diversity and they do not add much to humanity because of it.

You'll probably find it interesting to read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy Tall poppy syndrome and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law Jante Law then.

Indeed small groups of people tend to band together in a type of informal tribalism. Humans have a genetic disposition for ethnocentrism and without the constant mixing of cultures and ethnicities such as the environment found in large cities groups will invariably make efforts towards homogeneity of cultural and ethnic diversity through assimilation or exclusion of diversive elements.

In evolution once can see the benefit in that a lack of diversity would ensure social harmony and genetic compatibility for creating offspring.

However it was never meant to be a driving instinct behind a tool-using species and in the modern world does much more harm than good.