The case for building something wonderful alone
<i>&gt; Working alone means you don’t have to share the context of your changes with others.</i><p>This is the #1 advantage. It&#x27;s <i>huge</i>.<p>I have a mind that can hold a great amount of detail, pivot, and reshape architectures; all, without writing down a thing. I can do big things, very quickly, and make adjustments on the fly. It&#x27;s pretty cool.<p>If <i>even one other person</i> becomes involved (at the technical level), the whole shooting match comes to a screeching halt, as the overhead introduced by team communication is <i>gigantic</i>.<p>I have learned to break down team projects into units that can be done by engineers, working alone. This works best, when the engineers are experienced, and are very much &quot;on board&quot; with the development goals and heuristics. It doesn&#x27;t work so well with inexperienced engineers, or ones that have not been involved previously (new hires).<p>That said, big things pretty much require a team. That means that the overhead is inevitable, and it is up to the managers to create a system that maximizes engineer agency, and reduces team overhead.