The
everyone knows something principle is, in fact, quite useful in
problem solving. Take a problem which has a numerical answer (
e.g., how many pennies will fit into a 32 oz. bottle of
Gatorade (
sans fluid)?). Inquire of a
statistically significant group of people. Collect their
answers. Average them. You now have a good
approximation as to the correct answer.
When solving Fermi problems, collective intelligence does surprisingly well.
I have, in fact, tried this with the pennies. The correct answer was around 1453; the collective intelligence of the 609th Information Warfare Squadron placed it at 1444; the closest individual guess was 1478.