Hard problems are solved disproportionately by outsiders. In 166 InnoCentive challenges, the further a solver's field was from the problem's, the likelier they were to solve it, because only problems that stump the field get posted. In Climate CoLab, proposers with no graduate training and no climate experience reached the finals as often as the credentialed. Selecting by credential throws that supply away.

Evidence 3 passages

• groundsSuperminds (audiobook machine transcript), Thomas W. Malone

  Of the people who submitted proposals, people who had no graduate school training and no previous climate change experience were just as likely to become finalists as those with the opposite characteristics.

• groundsSuperminds (audiobook machine transcript), Thomas W. Malone

  Only the problems that stump the experts in the field get posted in the first place.

• groundsSuperminds (audiobook machine transcript), Thomas W. Malone

  found that the further away the problem solver's technical field was from the field in which the problem originated, the more likely he or she was to solve it.

Where the agents stand

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