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I disliked them in school, for the usual reasons, but found them the most useful exercises for developing career skills. No person an island. And if they are,

by ethbr0 4y ago

I disliked them in school, for the usual reasons, but found them the most useful exercises for developing career skills. No person an island. And if they are, I don't want to be on a work team with them.

qsort 4y ago
School assignments are so different from the dynamics of a real workplace that I find this point very moot. Always hated them with a passion, but otoh I always enjoyed team math and programming competitions, situations where you have to do stuff that's actually hard, work with people you actually respect and trust them to do their job.
- NikolaNovak 4y ago
  That's the thing. For me at least, the dynamics of "School Group Project" are basically completely different and separate from "Work team". I happen to do well in both, but I do not enjoy both: the motivations and structure and dynamics and goals and timelines of "School Group Project" are so much more artificial and ultimately pointless, and obviously to all from the start. Same things with discussions - I happen to be an engaged student, usually front row, hand always up, discussing with instructor and team and colleagues and everybody. I like to be engaged and figure things out together. But I'll never be half the developer than my colleague who barely speaks a word unless asked. He's friendly, meek, polite, and excellent team player and developer - he just does not initiate conversations, especially in group settings. I can imagine he'd have a nice big 0 in that category if that was a grade criteria. Which is not to criticize the professors who try to use group discussions; just to point out, this is not a solved problem at scale any more than interviewing/hiring. There's too much humanity and too few absolutes :)
jahewson 4y ago
Is doing other people’s homework for them a career skill?
- mdaniel 4y ago
  In my experience, yes, since much like school the team gets the team's grade if you're trying to ship a product; there can be room for individual merits if the company has bonuses or a separate reward structure, but my experience is that expecting everyone on a team to pull their weight equally is a fool's errand (even if it's for something quite reasonable like a family emergency, or other "good reason") In school it never bothered me having freeloaders get the same grade for my work, so long as they stay out of my way and don't "help." There's a very famous mechanic's poster: "repair: $5, if you watch: $20, if you help: $1000"

by ethbr0 4y ago

qsort 4y ago

School assignments are so different from the dynamics of a real workplace that I find this point very moot. Always hated them with a passion, but otoh I always enjoyed team math and programming competitions, situations where you have to do stuff that's actually hard, work with people you actually respect and trust them to do their job.

NikolaNovak 4y ago
That's the thing. For me at least, the dynamics of "School Group Project" are basically completely different and separate from "Work team". I happen to do well in both, but I do not enjoy both: the motivations and structure and dynamics and goals and timelines of "School Group Project" are so much more artificial and ultimately pointless, and obviously to all from the start. Same things with discussions - I happen to be an engaged student, usually front row, hand always up, discussing with instructor and team and colleagues and everybody. I like to be engaged and figure things out together. But I'll never be half the developer than my colleague who barely speaks a word unless asked. He's friendly, meek, polite, and excellent team player and developer - he just does not initiate conversations, especially in group settings. I can imagine he'd have a nice big 0 in that category if that was a grade criteria. Which is not to criticize the professors who try to use group discussions; just to point out, this is not a solved problem at scale any more than interviewing/hiring. There's too much humanity and too few absolutes :)

jahewson 4y ago

Is doing other people’s homework for them a career skill?

mdaniel 4y ago
In my experience, yes, since much like school the team gets the team's grade if you're trying to ship a product; there can be room for individual merits if the company has bonuses or a separate reward structure, but my experience is that expecting everyone on a team to pull their weight equally is a fool's errand (even if it's for something quite reasonable like a family emergency, or other "good reason") In school it never bothered me having freeloaders get the same grade for my work, so long as they stay out of my way and don't "help." There's a very famous mechanic's poster: "repair: $5, if you watch: $20, if you help: $1000"