<story><title>Evidence that collaboration results in group-think and mediocrity</title><url>https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/collaboration-kills-creativity-according-to-science.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>staunch</author><text>Creativity seems unimpeded when the one being creative is at the very top of the hierarchy. It doesn&amp;#x27;t really work for anyone else unless they have a direct contribution and connection to the dictator though.&lt;p&gt;Any requirement that new stuff be reviewed by committee (e.g. a board of directors) will tend to destroy anything truly innovative.&lt;p&gt;Why? Because the creative people can see much further than the (much less involved) committee. They seem like crazy people talking about a world that doesn&amp;#x27;t (yet) exist.&lt;p&gt;Elon Musk is doing so well because he has such an iron grip over his companies. If he ever becomes subject to real oversight he&amp;#x27;ll fail as hard as Jobs did under Scully.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>b0rsuk</author><text>This old blog post argues that wisdom of crowds works well for estimating facts, but poorly for creative thinking, even so far as to say: &amp;quot;Votes become vetoes&amp;quot;. Because people don&amp;#x27;t choose what they like the most, they choose against thing they like the least.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Ignoring the wisdom of crowds&amp;quot;
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.asmartbear.com&amp;#x2F;ignoring-the-wisdom-of-crowds.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.asmartbear.com&amp;#x2F;ignoring-the-wisdom-of-crowds.ht...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Evidence that collaboration results in group-think and mediocrity</title><url>https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/collaboration-kills-creativity-according-to-science.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>staunch</author><text>Creativity seems unimpeded when the one being creative is at the very top of the hierarchy. It doesn&amp;#x27;t really work for anyone else unless they have a direct contribution and connection to the dictator though.&lt;p&gt;Any requirement that new stuff be reviewed by committee (e.g. a board of directors) will tend to destroy anything truly innovative.&lt;p&gt;Why? Because the creative people can see much further than the (much less involved) committee. They seem like crazy people talking about a world that doesn&amp;#x27;t (yet) exist.&lt;p&gt;Elon Musk is doing so well because he has such an iron grip over his companies. If he ever becomes subject to real oversight he&amp;#x27;ll fail as hard as Jobs did under Scully.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>icebraining</author><text>Elon Musk does have oversight, in the form of his investors. His creative vision had to pass through the scrutiny of the boards of those companies and individuals which invested in Tesla and SpaceX.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s also plenty of cases of actual employees being innovative. The work produced by employees of SRI (e.g. Douglas Engelbart&amp;#x27;s team) and of Bell Labs eclipses Tesla and SpaceX in terms of innovation.</text></comment>