Skip to content
Technology & Innovation —

Community-Assisted Decisions

Asking thousands of strangers if those jeans look good on you might not have seemed possible only a few short years ago, but now it’s only an app download away.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

What began innocuously enough with restaurant reviews and recommendations through apps like Yelp has spread to virtually every possible aspect of human life and work. Asking thousands of strangers if those jeans look good on you might not have seemed possible (or desirable) only a few short years ago, but now it’s only an app download away, thanks to the advent of smartphones and mobile bandwidth. And style decisions are only the tip of the iceberg for community-assisted decision making, the newest trend appearing on a smartphone near you.

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next