The Rise of the New Groupthink, by Susan Cain
Any denizen of the worlds of academia, education, or management will recognize the words quoted below from Susan Cain’s article:
SOLITUDE is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.
As for me, I will take the advice of Steve Wozniak, aka “the other Steve:”
“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me … they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone …. I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.”
— Steve Wozniak
Further quotes:
Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.
— Pablo Picasso
This is an important point. My job is in architecture, which is a very artistic profession. I find the least sensitive architects feel the best designs are born in groups. In brain-storming sessions.
While I agree that collaboration can help an idea evolve, I do not believe the group is where an idea starts. When we work in groups, we tend towards consensus, even though it doesn’t yield the most creative solutions. Successful designs have a strong narrative focus, they are the product of a single mind.
A team can serve other, useful functions. But it’s not where the magic begins.