Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

queendomblog.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–88 of 88 posts

Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

#81

Post by kylerush »

I’m reminded of comments from Allen Holub on Twitter. The very nature of writing code is social. If you write code, you intend for someone to use it, or read it, or modify it, etc. GitHub is an excellent example.

But even if you don’t use GitHub, almost all organizations require collaboration on code. At the very least you need someone else to review your code.

So I don’t really understand how lone wolf could ever truly work in software engineering. I worry that letting the idea have any oxygen at all sets you up for failure.

Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

#82

Post by bumby »

Jensson wrote: post #79
bumby wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of some study that showed something like 90% of drivers rated themselves as "above average". It seems like self-evaluations are actually measuring confidence and not ability (which aren't always well correlated).

Confidence and ability has high but imperfect correlation. You see it clearly in the Dunning Kruger experiment, performance is way higher among the more confident groups. Just don't assume displayed confidence is a good measure of their actual confidence, many confident people act humble since it is socially advantageous to do so. Edit: Also note that confidence and performance could be 100% correlated even if everyo…

>Dunning Kruger experiment

Does this not show a J-shaped relationship between confidence and ability to accurately assess skill? [1] shows a weak negative correlation (strongest between multiple studies was -0.36).

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01674...

Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

#83

Post by jollyllama »

JTbane wrote: post #67

My hot take: the team I'm on is prone to extreme bikeshedding so sometimes I just go "lone wolf" on my work items to get a minimum working version out. The team then gives a lot of feedback (which is great) but would be insurmountable if I asked those questions upfront.

Yep. Alternatively, there's so much pointless consensus building. Everyone has to verbally approve of the idea in the meeting. If not, you'll be told "you need to talk more during meetings." When you do, and speak up, and say "well I don't agree with our approach but clearly I am outranked/outvoted and I'll happily do as I'm told because we need to ship", everyone freaks out. I can handle being the subordinate when I'm getting paid, I just hate phony power relationships where I'm expected to verbally affirm everyone.

Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

#84

Post by oytis »

Jensson wrote: post #80
oytis wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Professors didn't care - even if 3/4 team reported that 1/4 contributed zero. In workplace that can be mitigated by proper peer feedback system though.

What is to stop the 3/4 who didn't do anything will rate the person who did everything as a jerk, and he will be fired. It is 3 voices against 1, the manager will take their side in most cases.

If the organization is on this stage of decay, no, peer reviews won't help.

Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

#85

Post by jjtheblunt »

helf wrote: post #78
jjtheblunt wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... because my time is constantly taken up with and interrupted by "meetings" ... > ... perhaps i'm just grumpy You're only reacting to what you experienced as _reality_, which I believe because i've worked in kick ass engineering cultures with super lightweight management and zero meetings (Apple engineering, Motorola Labs) as well as laughably ridiculous bureaucracies with meeting galore squelching the smart engi…

Probably so :) I've heard tale of those glorious places with no/almost no meetings. looks wistfully into the horizon

:)

Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

#86

Post by hurril »

lucasyvas wrote: post #71
hurril wrote: post #14

I prefer working alone but it can be even better to work alone, together. Alone together means that there's a deep understanding of the other party and an openness to finding just the right configuration and the best way forward, together. But too often, people that prefer teamwork, really just want to be heard and receive credit for work done, together. But they're generally not very productive and their opinions no…

> But too often, people that prefer teamwork, really just want to be heard and receive credit for work done, together. But they're generally not very productive and their opinions not that valuable. Not every team I've been on is like this, but this resonates. Some teams are the equivalent of group projects in school and I think most of us unfortunate enough to have endured those would agree. For me, the best team is…

I agree. And we solve things differently, learn from each other, help each other out, but we're not as interested in consensus. I'll help you do it your way because I accept our differences, and embrace them. We don't file down the edges, we handle them. This is the way.

Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)

#87

Post by [deleted] »

dbrueck wrote: post #15
wiz21c wrote: post #11

My kids work in team projects at school. The issue is that many other pupils just want to work the least possible and procrastinate as much as possible. This drives my kids crazy because they want to have good scores and they much prefer having a nice evening playing games or watching TV instead of rushing for late homework. (note to other parents: my kids do procrastinate, of course, but not as much as the average :…

Nothing made my kids hate working with other people more than group projects at school. The projects were, without fail, a total disaster every single time.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN