Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Converge or Diverge

There are certain things you need to do alone. And there are certain things you can only accomplish as a team. Two people can join in strength; one person can break themselves apart, or by superhuman accident can find even greater strength.

What we do together versus solo have specific contexts of worth. To be solo is to be free; to be tied-to-others is to be constrained. An army of soloists by definition needs no management structure. By definition such a "group" is easier to manage, and sometimes accomplishes more than a well-coordinated team. From a probability perspective however, the better bet in most situations is the carefully managed team. The latter takes a lot of work; the former relies on a lot of luck.

There are certain moods in the world that emerge based on global events. They seem to push us in either direction: cohesiveness and unity versus independence and breadth. I realize that I have a preference for neither mode, but recognize the validity of both approaches.

The successful soloist is likely to realize the more creative outcome, whereas the successful team is likely to realize the more meaningful outcome. Hmmm. That doesn't sound quite right. My dear friend and mentor Topper Carew suggests that it's always good to marinate. So here I am marinating ...