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From:     Optimus <optimus@????.????-??????.de>
Date:     Thu, 1 Jun 2000 13:10:54 +0200
Subject:  Re: OT: Teamwork
Hi there,

> Ya, but I always had a hard time letting the dumbasses (those who
> "I'll defend my nerdy, close-minded, 'its only good if I came up with
> it' way of thinking to my death" *bang*) affect the overall world.
> Those who do  that you just push aside and ignore.  They either get
> the clue and become CONSTRUCTIVE or we didn't lose anything anyway.

Well, the way you put it here somehow implies that you are going
to ingore other points of view and exactly stick to your own ideas
exclusively.
Thankfully you clarified the issue in another post: "That was an 'in
general' comment about selfish or close-minded people.  They are
for the most part NOT constructive.  I am *always* open to
someone else's ideas. If I don't agree with them, they might spark
another approach to whatever the problem is at hand."

That is something we can agree on. Static already pointed out the
difficulties of creating one unified system, although that is
something being worked on. Naturally there needs to be a dialogue
over these issues, as there have been in the past (the discussion
about sympathetic magic and magical flows in the council springs
to mind).

> So it looks like I'll have come up with something on my own.  I was
> really hoping for a collaborative effort (isn't that why the list is
> here).  It's been my experience that no individual can create or
> design anything half as good as a cohesive team. From my military
> experience to my executive role now, this has always been an
> undeniable truth.

I guess I have to argue with the undeniable truth then: Certainly
huge projects can only be accomplished by a team. No matter if
it's a complex program or a skyscraper you want to build, a team
is the most logical approach.
However, when it comes to tasks, which can be worked on by a
single person - painting, writing or in some cases even researching,
then more often than not, an individual is better suited than a team.

The important point is, that a person knows exactly what he/she
wants and how he/she is going to approach a certain problem. No
matter how good a team is, the communication between mutliple
people is never as all-encompassing as one person's familiarity
with his/her own thoughts.
Furthermore more people automatically mean more opinions and
that can slow down a project tremendously, as Static already
pointed out.

>From my own personal experience I have to say that most of the
time individuals are more efficient compared to teams (not
compared to the entire team effort, but if you would divide the whole
team effort by its members, then the individual would have better
results), but with extensive and huge projects, teams are a
"necessary evil", as one person cannot do it alone.

Of course there are the rare exceptions to this as I was writing a
story with a friend of mine and it turned out great. Better than I
could have done it alone.
However, that does not change the fact (!) that in a team, people do
not work with their maximum efficiency anymore.

With regards,

Kai


"Work like you don't need the money, dance like
nobody is watching, love like you've never been hurt"
___________________________________________________
optimus@????.????-??????.de
http://www.baer.rwth-aachen.de/~optimus/


Previous Message: Re: SPEED OF THOUGHT
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Month Index: June, 2000

SubjectFromDate (UTC)
OT: Teamwork    Optimus    01 Jun 2000 11:10:54
Re: OT: Teamwork    Buddy Murphy    01 Jun 2000 18:11:19

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