What does “die Weisheit der Vielen” mean in German?

Ralf Schmitz erklärt die Regeln von Die Weisheit der Vielen

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B2 German listening practice · German · Picked for people who know more

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die Weisheit der Vielen
The crowd's shared guess usually beats one person's best answer
“The wisdom of the many” — a big group’s average guess often beats one expert.

The host explains the show’s whole idea: when many people each guess a number, the computer takes their average — and that average usually lands close to the truth, better than one person alone. He dares you to beat “die Vielen” (the many) just once on a strange quiz question and win 10,000 euros. Sounds easy, he says, but it is “verdammt schwer” — really hard. Why? Because the crowd is almost always right.

Spoken in the clip: “wenn ihr nur ein einziges Mal besser geschätzt habt … als die Vielen zusammen” — “if you guess better just one single time … than the many put together.” Here “die Vielen” is the whole crowd of guessers. The full phrase “die Weisheit der Vielen” names the belief behind the game. More examples: - “Die Weisheit der Vielen schlägt oft den einen Experten.” — The wisdom of the many often beats the single expert. - “Wir vertrauen hier der Weisheit der Vielen.” — Here we trust the wisdom of the many. - “Gegen die Vielen anzutreten ist schwer.” — Going up against the many is hard. Usage notes: “die Weisheit der Vielen” is a phrase borrowed from the English idea “wisdom of crowds.” “Weisheit” means wisdom; “der Vielen” means “of the many.” You will hear it used about polls, ratings, or group votes — anywhere a big group’s shared answer beats one lone guess.

From RTL↗ on YouTube.Watch original

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this B2 German listening practice video?

89.5%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common German words
Most of the words in this video are common German words.

How common in written German

83.6%
Top 1,000
89.5%
Top 2,000
94.7%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken German

95.3%
Top 1,000
98%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in German.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than B2. Here is what they mean.

kandidatinnen
1×
Not in top 5,000
female candidates
skurrilen
1×
Not in top 5,000
bizarre; odd; eccentric
wissensfragen
1×
Not in top 5,000
knowledge questions, trivia
errechnet
1×
Not in top 5,000
calculated, computed, figured out
kandidatin
2×
Not in top 5,000
female candidate

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-DE 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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