The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
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The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opini ... ef=opinion
The Rise of the New Groupthink
by Susan Cain
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.
But there’s a problem with this view. Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.
One explanation for these findings is that introverts are comfortable working alone — and solitude is a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck observed, introversion fosters creativity by “concentrating the mind on the tasks in hand, and preventing the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.” In other words, a person sitting quietly under a tree in the backyard, while everyone else is clinking glasses on the patio, is more likely to have an apple land on his head. (Newton was one of the world’s great introverts: William Wordsworth described him as “A mind for ever/ Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”)
Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said. A central narrative of many religions is the seeker — Moses, Jesus, Buddha — who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community.
Culturally, we’re often so dazzled by charisma that we overlook the quiet part of the creative process. Consider Apple. In the wake of Steve Jobs’s death, we’ve seen a profusion of myths about the company’s success. Most focus on Mr. Jobs’s supernatural magnetism and tend to ignore the other crucial figure in Apple’s creation: a kindly, introverted engineering wizard, Steve Wozniak, who toiled alone on a beloved invention, the personal computer.
Rewind to March 1975: Mr. Wozniak believes the world would be a better place if everyone had a user-friendly computer. This seems a distant dream — most computers are still the size of minivans, and many times as pricey. But Mr. Wozniak meets a simpatico band of engineers that call themselves the Homebrew Computer Club. The Homebrewers are excited about a primitive new machine called the Altair 8800. Mr. Wozniak is inspired, and immediately begins work on his own magical version of a computer. Three months later, he unveils his amazing creation for his friend, Steve Jobs. Mr. Wozniak wants to give his invention away free, but Mr. Jobs persuades him to co-found Apple Computer.
The story of Apple’s origin speaks to the power of collaboration. Mr. Wozniak wouldn’t have been catalyzed by the Altair but for the kindred spirits of Homebrew. And he’d never have started Apple without Mr. Jobs.
But it’s also a story of solo spirit. If you look at how Mr. Wozniak got the work done — the sheer hard work of creating something from nothing — he did it alone. Late at night, all by himself.
Intentionally so. In his memoir, Mr. Wozniak offers this guidance to aspiring inventors:
“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.”
And yet. The New Groupthink has overtaken our workplaces, our schools and our religious institutions. Anyone who has ever needed noise-canceling headphones in her own office or marked an online calendar with a fake meeting in order to escape yet another real one knows what I’m talking about. Virtually all American workers now spend time on teams and some 70 percent inhabit open-plan offices, in which no one has “a room of one’s own.” During the last decades, the average amount of space allotted to each employee shrank 300 square feet, from 500 square feet in the 1970s to 200 square feet in 2010.
(continued)
The Rise of the New Groupthink
by Susan Cain
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.
But there’s a problem with this view. Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.
One explanation for these findings is that introverts are comfortable working alone — and solitude is a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck observed, introversion fosters creativity by “concentrating the mind on the tasks in hand, and preventing the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.” In other words, a person sitting quietly under a tree in the backyard, while everyone else is clinking glasses on the patio, is more likely to have an apple land on his head. (Newton was one of the world’s great introverts: William Wordsworth described him as “A mind for ever/ Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”)
Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said. A central narrative of many religions is the seeker — Moses, Jesus, Buddha — who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community.
Culturally, we’re often so dazzled by charisma that we overlook the quiet part of the creative process. Consider Apple. In the wake of Steve Jobs’s death, we’ve seen a profusion of myths about the company’s success. Most focus on Mr. Jobs’s supernatural magnetism and tend to ignore the other crucial figure in Apple’s creation: a kindly, introverted engineering wizard, Steve Wozniak, who toiled alone on a beloved invention, the personal computer.
Rewind to March 1975: Mr. Wozniak believes the world would be a better place if everyone had a user-friendly computer. This seems a distant dream — most computers are still the size of minivans, and many times as pricey. But Mr. Wozniak meets a simpatico band of engineers that call themselves the Homebrew Computer Club. The Homebrewers are excited about a primitive new machine called the Altair 8800. Mr. Wozniak is inspired, and immediately begins work on his own magical version of a computer. Three months later, he unveils his amazing creation for his friend, Steve Jobs. Mr. Wozniak wants to give his invention away free, but Mr. Jobs persuades him to co-found Apple Computer.
The story of Apple’s origin speaks to the power of collaboration. Mr. Wozniak wouldn’t have been catalyzed by the Altair but for the kindred spirits of Homebrew. And he’d never have started Apple without Mr. Jobs.
But it’s also a story of solo spirit. If you look at how Mr. Wozniak got the work done — the sheer hard work of creating something from nothing — he did it alone. Late at night, all by himself.
Intentionally so. In his memoir, Mr. Wozniak offers this guidance to aspiring inventors:
“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.”
And yet. The New Groupthink has overtaken our workplaces, our schools and our religious institutions. Anyone who has ever needed noise-canceling headphones in her own office or marked an online calendar with a fake meeting in order to escape yet another real one knows what I’m talking about. Virtually all American workers now spend time on teams and some 70 percent inhabit open-plan offices, in which no one has “a room of one’s own.” During the last decades, the average amount of space allotted to each employee shrank 300 square feet, from 500 square feet in the 1970s to 200 square feet in 2010.
(continued)
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- Robert_S
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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
I'm about 75% introvert and this place if about 65% of my social life.
What I've found with a few discussions I've had lately is this self-satisfaction that people express with their proffessed open mindedness. In realty it ammounts to wilful ignorance and intellectual cowardice as they are choosing to not form any sort of opinion on a particular topic. Basically "I don't know and I'm not going to look at any evidence because I'm quite happy on this fence."
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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
I prefer having my work be my work. I enjoy getting together with people, brainstorming, troubleshooting, delegating, and so forth, but then I pretty much want to be left alone so I can go do my thing. And if I'm working with people on a single project, I like having one aspect of it that's all mine, that I coordinate to fit in with the work others are doing.
I like people, and I need to interact with people fairly regularly to keep the blues at bay. But unless it's a mindless task like hauling wood or cleaning or shucking corn or what have you, I find other people irritating and in the way. And I really resent when I'm in a workplace that expects everyone to eat lunch together. Damn it, I just spent all day with you people-- can't I just take a half-hour break? Rrrrrr.
I like people, and I need to interact with people fairly regularly to keep the blues at bay. But unless it's a mindless task like hauling wood or cleaning or shucking corn or what have you, I find other people irritating and in the way. And I really resent when I'm in a workplace that expects everyone to eat lunch together. Damn it, I just spent all day with you people-- can't I just take a half-hour break? Rrrrrr.
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spins blindly in the dark
so close to annihilation.
Listen. No one listens. Meow.
spins blindly in the dark
so close to annihilation.
Listen. No one listens. Meow.
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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
I feel so much like this - I can't wait for those moments when I can close my door for lunch and not be perpetually available to people - I work with a great bunch of folks but I don't want to socialise with them outside of work.hadespussercats wrote:I prefer having my work be my work. I enjoy getting together with people, brainstorming, troubleshooting, delegating, and so forth, but then I pretty much want to be left alone so I can go do my thing. And if I'm working with people on a single project, I like having one aspect of it that's all mine, that I coordinate to fit in with the work others are doing.
I like people, and I need to interact with people fairly regularly to keep the blues at bay. But unless it's a mindless task like hauling wood or cleaning or shucking corn or what have you, I find other people irritating and in the way. And I really resent when I'm in a workplace that expects everyone to eat lunch together. Damn it, I just spent all day with you people-- can't I just take a half-hour break? Rrrrrr.
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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
Could have fooled me.Robert_S wrote:I'm about 75% introvert and this place if about 65% of my social life.

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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
I work with a variable group of people, and I definitely don't want to socialise with them outside work. Apart from one close friend, there are very few others who I would even willingly share a coffee break with, and some I'd prefer stayed at least 50 yards away at all times.Bella Fortuna wrote:I feel so much like this - I can't wait for those moments when I can close my door for lunch and not be perpetually available to people - I work with a great bunch of folks but I don't want to socialise with them outside of work.hadespussercats wrote:I prefer having my work be my work. I enjoy getting together with people, brainstorming, troubleshooting, delegating, and so forth, but then I pretty much want to be left alone so I can go do my thing. And if I'm working with people on a single project, I like having one aspect of it that's all mine, that I coordinate to fit in with the work others are doing.
I like people, and I need to interact with people fairly regularly to keep the blues at bay. But unless it's a mindless task like hauling wood or cleaning or shucking corn or what have you, I find other people irritating and in the way. And I really resent when I'm in a workplace that expects everyone to eat lunch together. Damn it, I just spent all day with you people-- can't I just take a half-hour break? Rrrrrr.

God has no place within these walls, just like facts have no place within organized religion. - Superintendent Chalmers
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It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson



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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
I've arranged all paid work and all my studies since 2003, when I returned to work after Younger Daughter, so that I can work at home at least one day a week, preferably two. Before 1999 & Elder Daughter, I usually found a way to sit in the department library for at least 7-8 hours of the work week, and sometimes more.
I like working with people: brainstorming, problem-solving, teaching, coaching, seminars and workshops, but to get some serious research, writing or planning of new lectures done, I need to be alone. Period.
I like working with people: brainstorming, problem-solving, teaching, coaching, seminars and workshops, but to get some serious research, writing or planning of new lectures done, I need to be alone. Period.
"The internet is made of people. People matter. This includes you. Stop trying to sell everything about yourself to everyone. Don’t just hammer away and repeat and talk at people—talk TO people. It’s organic. Make stuff for the internet that matters to you, even if it seems stupid. Do it because it’s good and feels important. Put up more cat pictures. Make more songs. Show your doodles. Give things away and take things that are free." - Maureen J
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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
Being a misanthrope leaves me with a somewhat active social life, that scorn ain't gonna pour itself. Still I do love my solitude, I'm far more productive and, I'm told, more fun to be around when I've had little to zero human company for 36/48hrs or so every couple of weeks.
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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
I like people. Fried, boiled, oven-roasted, all great, but the best is to wrap them in banana leaves and put them in a hole in the ground with a bunch of hot rocks. Long Pork Luau - ummm.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.
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Re: The Group vs. The Individual? Where do you stand?
I've always always worked better alone. Looking back, I can see times where I've taken on too much - too many roles, in order to make sure things worked the way they ought to - the way I wanted them too; which is probably why, when I have had to leave a project behind, I've broken all the ties completely. If the pie is going to slowly crumble, I don't want to stick around with my little finger still in it. I guess there's an in-built pride that drives me to be able to say "I did that; I made that work" at the end of the day.
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