Diversity and bullies

[koganbot]

In Professor’s Model, Diversity = Productivity

What the model showed was that diverse groups of problem solvers outperformed the groups of the best individuals at solving problems. The reason: the diverse groups got stuck less often than the smart individuals, who tended to think similarly.

The other thing we did was to show in mathematical terms how when making predictions, a group’s errors depend in equal parts on the ability of its members to predict and their diversity. This second theorem can be expressed as an equation: collective accuracy = average accuracy + diversity.

So, here's my question for the Department of Dilettante Research (or for poptimists): If we get rid of the bullies, do we cripple ourselves intellectually by limiting our diversity? Or would letting the bullies in cripple our diversity because the bullies would drive people away?

Or within a group, however diverse its overall membership, would the dominant voices (whether those of bullies or of nice persuasive people with good ideas) narrow the range of ideas in the group? An alternate thought is that good ideas can drive out bad ideas, but then the good ideas themselves generate a diversity of new ideas.

EDIT: here is the original Department Of Dilettante Research post; the reason I didn't keep posting frequently on the idea was that the very day of this first post Scott Dickensheets at the Las Vegas Weekly finally got back to me, accepting my proposal for a column; in the short run the column has given me a place for my ideas and brought me some money. It hasn't created nearly the conversation I'd like, though I can't say I'm surprised, as I don't know how many people other than you here and a few more scattered friends and relatives are reading it.

Comments

[koganbot]

Also, reminding you of this post, which I liked a lot though it didn't generate any comments:

Easy: Paula DeAnda and Axl Rose

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

If you define "bully" as someone who just wants to end the conversation (without wanting to join it in any meaningful way), then I don't see how this could ever be beneficial to anything. If you define "bully" as someone with an aggressively opposing viewpoint, then I guess this would be positive diversity -- but ideally diversity will come from people with diverse backgrounds and maybe worldviews, opinions, etc. -- my sense is that a lot of the bullies driving people away are simply making certain spaces unpleasant for anyone involved (and, by association, more pleasant spaces in which they participate more congenially).

You can keep people like this out by ignoring them (a la trolling on the teenpop thread vs. trolling elsewhere re: other threads), and their influence won't necessarily ruin anything (provided they don't overwhelm the people whose interest is in continuing a given conversation).