When first reading your article, I felt as though your views have may been too opinionated with such sorrow for the lonely innovators ostracized for their dislike of working with other people. I appreciate the individual effort towards work as I am a person who does their share when put into groups. But, being in a group does not always hinder decisions. As you mention "groupthink" there is such thing as "risky shift", where working in groups with diluted responsibility leads to greater risks taken. Others just simply like being around teams with members who will help foster their ideas and can work off of each other.
Although when considering this idea of creation and collaboration as with Apple, Andrew Keen discussed Wikipedia's maintenance. His view is even more cynical if possible, in that with so many players involved in editing and revising content, how are we to know what is even true anymore? He would agree with you in the lack of responsibility is negative for the rest of the world. However, I see it as a possible outlet, for those introverts to express themselves comfortably from their own homes. The internet allows anyone to virtually express their ideas and innovations to the world. Even themselves.
As people are attracted to charisma, they also want to be proud of making an impact. Wikipedia and other digital media allow for this. Clay Shirky claims the reason Wikis are successful is because people are waiting and watching and making corrections. The whole site is a "collection of changes" that are documented with each edit . This is any person being able to form a piece of history, visible to the digital world. Who doesn't want to be recognized for their individual efforts? And you need other people for that. Just as Wozniak did make the choice to form Apple with Steve Jobs, though he tells others to work alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment