Shared information by means of casual conversation or gossip allows for efficient decision making

Summary

• Shared information by means of casual conversation or gossip allows for efficient decision making

Details

• meeting in a place that is not home and work allows people to be more free with conversation: pub, places of worship, etc
• better if people are on equal footing in those places
• better if there is a good diversity represented there

Reflections

• work on talking to people in public places a bit more

References

• The Great Mental Models, Volume 4 - Economics and Art - Shane Parrish

Quotes

So, people share information. They talk about what they paid for their house. They talk about how the harvest went on their cousin’s farm. They talk about how hard the blacksmith is working to keep up with demand. Gossip seems frivolous, but it enables more efficient decision making.

In his 1989 book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg wrote about “third places,” places that are neither home nor work where we can go to experience companionship and community. A third place is “neutral ground” and “a leveler” where “the main activity is conversation.” No one is in charge, and “those gathered are on equal footing.”[8] Third places produce a dynamism that is often absent in other places because of the diversity of the people gathered. In the other places where we spend time—including home, work, and places of worship—we are much more likely to be surrounded by people similar to ourselves.

Related

• Talk to people in your organization in different levels
• If you have a project, talk about it at every possible occasion
• Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them, one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry or savour their songs - Nelson Mandela
• Consume information from better sources
• Dont let information assymetry intimidate you