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