schelling's points

I read the following quote this week - "if you set a crowd of self-interested , independent people to work in a decentralized way on the same problem, instead of trying to direct their efforts from the top down, their collective solution is likely to be better than any other solution you could come up with". Figuring out how to aggregate this information while still remaining decentralized - usually leads to the right decision -assuming of course that is what you are seeking.
When my wife and I were dating - I would always meet her under the big clock in Grand Central Terminal in NYC. I'd come down the escalators in the Met Life Building and there she would be. If you've ever been there you just know that it is where everyone meets in Midtown -and for as long as I lived there - I couldn't tell you why. There were the practical reasons of subways and commuter rails -but GCT is a big terminal with waiting rooms, a food court, and literally thousands of places to meet -so why under the big clock ? In 1958 Thomas Schelling conducted an experiment with some students in New Haven, Connecticut. "You have to meet someone in New York City. You don't know where you are supposed to meet and there is no way to communicate with the other person ahead of time. Where do you go and what time do you meet ? " NY is a big place and the idea that you might just know where to meet someone and at what time seems almost laughable. The results of the thought experiment were striking. Nearly all the students said they would meet at the big clock in GCT around noon. Just to take it a bit further -- if you take 2 random students with the goal of having lunch in the big city without knowing where to meet or at what time -- odds are they will meet under the big clock in Grand Central Terminal at noon. The clock is a kind of focal point or what today is called Schelling's points. There types of focal points are fascinating because they suggest that people can approach mutually beneficial results while decentralized and even more astonishingly -- not even talking. I always liked that old clock .