The Limits of Deep Difference

A reply to Shadi’s “Consensus” essay.

Shadi’s most recent essay serves as a very tidy exposition of why he and I have been doing Wisdom of Crowds for all this time: “Agreement is nice. Disagreement is better,” to quote our freshly-minted motto. Here, in broad strokes, we agree: carefully thinking about disagreement is incredibly important.

But I tend to put things in a more somber register t…