🧠 The teams with the highest individual IQs…
Often make the worst decisions.

If everyone thinks the same way, shares the same background, or has the same view, you don’t get better ideas. You get blind spots.

This is of the main point of Matthew Syed‘s Rebel Ideas, which I recently read again.
A few weeks ago, I shared thoughts on his other book, Black Box Thinking, about how we learn from failure.
Rebel Ideas feels like the perfect follow-up. It’s about how we learn from others, especially those who see things differently.

Here are a few ideas that stood out:

🧠 Smart individuals don’t guarantee smart teams
A team full of high performers can still make bad choices if they all think alike.
Diversity only helps if different voices are actually heard.

🧭 We need both depth and distance
Syed says real insight comes when we combine deep expertise with fresh perspectives.
It’s not one or the other, but both together that matter.
He shares the story of DEC computers — but it made me think of the Blackberry film.
They were so focused on what had worked before, they couldn’t imagine people wanting a phone without a keyboard.

⚠️ Secrecy hurts innovation
Some companies keep ideas hidden to protect themselves. But when they shut out new thinking, ideas stop growing.

📊 The problem with averages
This really stood out to me:
“When an average is used well, it brings together many insights.
But used badly, it forces one solution on everyone.”

And one line still sticks with me — especially now, when “diversity” is talked about more than ever, even as it feels more important than ever:

“Our species is the most formidable on the planet not because we are individually strong, but because we are collectively diverse.”

📚 If you’re interested in better decisions, innovation, or working well with others, this book is worth reading (or re-reading).