"The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it"
- Terry Pratchett
About this Quote
This quote by Terry Pratchett is an amusing take on crowd mentality. The "animal" described is the collective intelligence or lack thereof possessed by a group of people. The square root of the number of individuals in the crowd is used as a step of how intelligent the crowd is. This indicates that the bigger the crowd, the less smart it ends up being, as the square root of a bigger number is always larger. Pratchett is showing the principle of mob mindset or groupthink, where private intelligence is typically changed with conformity to the group. Ultimately, the quote works as a suggestion of the prospective risks of blindly following the crowd.
"The opportunity to create a small world between two pieces of cardboard, where time exists yet stands still, where people talk and I tell them what to say, is exciting and rewarding"
