In college, the best time I had on group projects was when I could pick my group. I was in groups of people with a similar skill level and interest in the topi

In college, the best time I had on group projects was when I could pick my group. I was in groups of people with a similar skill level and interest in the topic, and we worked together seamlessly. I learned the most because other group members had ideas that I didn't think of. Since we were all really interested in the subject, we would also go above and beyond the assignment guidelines and turn in work that had challenged us even more. The worst groups had extreme skill and interest differences. It always took 10x the time to drag the lower-skill person through their part of the project than it took to do the work myself. In the beginning I would spend a lot of time helping the person, but in later projects I would just lay out some interfaces early on, leave the person to figure it out themselves, and reserve enough time before the due date for me to just do their part myself if necessary. I can't imagine that this was fun for them. I think they would have gotten much more out of being on a team with someone at a similar level of skill. They would have had someone to talk problems through with, and would have had some camaraderie around struggling their way through the course. I was never on a team with someone much-much better than me, but I don't think I would have found that fun either. In the best teams, you are slightly better at some things and slightly worse at others. When these differences become too great, working in a group is no longer helpful. I also feel like the dynamics and incentives in a job differ from the dynamics and incentives of a college group project that you don't really learn any useful social skills either.