Book Review: The Smart Swarm by Peter Miller

 

The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done was written by Peter Miller who is a senior editor at National Geographic. He has served as a writer and editor for more than 25 years.

In the book, Miller examines the latest research on how nature’s littlest creatures such as ants and termites are able to overcome challenges and solve difficult problems. Miller explains the basic principles of smart swarms, which are self-organizing, diverse with knowledge, indirectly collaborate, and mimic adaptively.  Therefore, we should be looking at flocks, schools, and colonies to understand trends, social networks, and energy conservation.

The book is not your typical business book. In fact, it is very interesting to learn about how small-scale phenomena has big social, business, and technological implications. 

Below are a few examples of how nature has inspired us to act:

• By studying ant colonies’ simple governing rules, computer scientists have written programs to streamline factory processes, telephone networks, and truck routes
• Termites have inspired climate control solutions
• The U.S. military is developing a team of robots that behave like fish.

The book is divided up into the following chapters:

• Chapter 1: Ants: Who’s in Charge Here?
• Chapter 2: Honeybees: Making Smart Decisions
• Chapter 3: Termites: One Thing Leads to Another
• Chapter 4: Birds of a Feature: Secrets of Flocks, Schools, and Herds
• Chapter 5: Locusts: The Dark Sides of Crowds
• Chapter 6: Conclusion: Doing the Right Thing

While reading this book, you will be fascinated to learn about how certain species (humans as well) act in a group versus alone.  As a result, the power of a group shouldn’t be under-estimated.  If you want to read an innovative business book, then The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done may be worth reading.

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Comments

[Mark J. Carter]

Thank you for a concise and very helpful book review - with so many books written about business networking it's tough to weed through them and find the good ones.

Thanks to your blog I just did!

[Jason Jacobsohn]

Thanks Carter. Glad that this review was helpful.

[Donald Brownlie Fleming]

Hi! This is such a great article and I am sure a lot of entrepreneurs are going to benefit from this. I am Donald Brownlie Fleming, an Australian Entrepreneur, ebook author (Master Selling by Donald Brownlie Fleming) and a Philanthropist. If you have time, maybe you can visit me too.

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