Cognitive science shows that humans are smarter as a group than they are on their own

Quartz:

As individuals, the amount we know about the world is miniscule. One psychologist estimated that an individual’s knowledge store is about one gigabyte, much less than fits on a typical USB thumb drive. This is why most of us struggle to name even a few foreign leaders or accurately draw a picture of a bicycle.

Even within our domains of expertise, ignorance is a fact of life. Surgeons are masters of the procedures they perform, but that doesn’t mean they can identify the appropriate anesthetic or design an effective course of follow-up physical therapy. And there are also constraints on how many different procedures they can master: That is why orthopedic practices often have a “knee-guy” and an “ankle-guy.”

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