ESSAY DRAFT

Even from the beginning of the human era, people tended to work in groups because hunting
and gathering were the only options to survive in the wild. However, human intelligence has
developed so far over the centuries. For this reason, humanity has become the ruler of nature
and the world. We do not have another species who intelligently developed enough and above
us. The reached supremacy provided enough space for people to have a comfort zone by
themselves over the years. This situation allowed people to have not only group work but
individual thought processes, discoveries, and inventions. However, the dilemma between
group work and individualism has led to debates worldwide about whether we should work
together or choose solitude to continue improving humanity's future. Although there are people
who believe that the world has become too complicated for individual studies, solitude mainly
produces much more efficient and creative ideas because people who work alone with their
thoughts have almost always achieved advances in the history of science and business.

The reason solitude is superior to the collaboration of people in business is that they do
not get distracted by social matters, and the privacy they get from being alone makes people
more comfortable with their work. According to the studies by psychologists Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist, the most creative people in many fields are often
introverted(Cain 1). Business is also one of them. For instance, although Apple's founding was
based on teamwork, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, was a kindly introverted engineering
wizard(Cain 1). Working alone without distraction from outside drove him to focus solely on his
task and made him highly successful. Apart from this, privacy creates efficiency. A study called
"Coding War Games", a comparison between 600 computer programmers at 92 companies,
claimed that the best performances did not depend on their experience or better salary. It was
about how much privacy they got from their workplace and having a place where no one could
interrupt however they wanted (Cain 3). These studies prove that individualism in business
works far better than group work while improving creativity and efficiency.

Progression in science became possible because most geniuses chose to work by

themselves. This led to their imagination expanding and thinking more practically. An example
of this can be seen in Newton's situation, "sitting quietly under a tree in the backyard, while
everyone is clinking glasses on the patio, having an apple land on his head."(Cain 1). If Newton
would join the others to clink glasses, would he be the genius everyone knew throughout
history? Would his mind have enough focus and solitude to think about more profound matters,
like how gravity works? If he chose solitude or was an outcast, it did not matter. What made
him achieve this fame and progress was pure solitude. Furthermore, the organizational
psychologist Adrian Furnham explains that "if you have talented and motivated people, they
should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority."(Cain
4). Putting talented people in a random group prevents their full potential to unleash, and we
may lose a genius or a bright-minded person for the sake of group work. If we do not want to
lose the people who will contribute creative ideas for the advancement of the world, we should
give them privacy and not force them to be a part of our society because these groups can make
their flame of ideas extinguish.

Despite the fact that a part of some people asserts collaboration and the power of
teamwork drives people to produce more ideas in short periods of time and loosen up their
unfettered imagination(qtd. in Lehrer 1), group work may have severe effects on groups. Alex
Osborn, creator of the term "brainstorm" argues that people should forget the quality of their
ideas and must aim to produce as many ideas as they can. In this way, people do not be afraid
of saying the wrong thing and will leave the brainstorming session proud of their
contribution(qtd. in Lehrer 2). However, this thinking creates a variety of problems. When
everyone starts to agree with each other and never criticize themselves, nobody questions how
poorly produced they are. Furthermore, not all people would join to exchange ideas in a
brainstorming session. They would think that they do not have to do something because others
are already creating ideas on their behalf. This situation leads to people getting lazier and lazier.
In addition, conformity created by this also pushes them to outcast the individuals inside with
contradicting opinions and develop stereotyped images that dehumanize out-groups(Janis 5). In
order to prevent group conformity and repetition of ideas, individual work should be promoted,
and everyone should create personal spaces where they can focus on thinking on their own.

In conclusion, apart from the people who think that we can no longer progress without
working together, solitude is still the best option we have in terms of creativity and efficiency.
Because working alone in a focused state of mind developed humanity so well in the history of
science and business. Businesses have become places where workers need privacy to feel
comfortable and concentrate on their work. Also, scientific advancements have achieved many
developments by scientists bringing their comfort zones and putting up a wall between their
environment. People who work in these fields show progress each day. We live in a fast-paced,
complex world, but a calm mind free of disturbance can solve issues quickly. With these in mind,
everyone should consider working alone and try to focus on their task only.

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