Prompt Cast
Crowdsourcing Weights: How Many Hands Make Light One Finger?
Generated on March 06, 2026
TLDR In Planet Money's episode, they explore Francis Galton's experiment by averaging global online guesses for Penelope's ox's weight and find it surprisingly accurate compared to experts. This demonstrates the "wisdom of crowds" effect where collective opinions converge on reality despite individual inaccuracies.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
A century ago, Francis Galton discovered that a group of people guessing the weight of an ox at a fair could arrive remarkably close to the actual weight.
02:46
Planet Money repeats Galton's cow weighing experiment on a global scale via social media and fair visits.
06:00
Isa and her friends reveal the true weight of a cow after receiving an average guess from random online respondents is remarkably close to reality.
09:12
A random online guess for Penelope's cow weight averages surprisingly close to actual, illustrating the wisdom of crowds over experts.
12:05
Guesswork surprisingly converges on actual weight in crowdsourced cow guesses despite individual errors.
14:43
A podcast episode reveals that while individual guesses about a cow's weight may be off due to emotion or tips, collective guesswork surprisingly converges on the accurate value.
18:27
Collective guesswork about a cow’s weight converges remarkably close to the actual value despite emotional individual estimates being off.
