"Collaboration" Is Bullshit
Summary
The author challenges the pervasive emphasis on collaboration, arguing it creates coordination overhead and diffuses accountability. Drawing on historical studies (Marshall, Ringelmann, Brooks), it asserts that high-quality work often comes from individuals or small teams with clear ownership, and criticizes modern tool ecosystems that simulate collaboration without delivering output. The piece advocates returning to individual responsibility and simpler processes, with implications for how automation and tooling should be designed in knowledge work.