Unlike some of our previous reading selections, which have focused on the importance of community and collectivism, the reading selections below present the benefits of solitude and individuality. they provide additional ideas and insights about our cour

Solitude or Group Work? Even though psychologists usually divide people into two parts: introverts and extraverts, according to their need of socialization, still irrespective of what kind of people we are, sometimes we all need a little solitude in our lives. In her opinion essay “ The Rise of the New Groupthink” Susan Cain claims that solitude is definitely a productive way to gain some intellectual result and generate new ideas, as being alone people are more focused and efficient workers then participating in a group work.
At the very beginning of the essay Susan Cain notices that collective work is becoming more popular nowadays so many people start undervaluing the importance of solitude in people’s lives. The main point the author asserts in her essay is that in general solitude is a great way for people to become more creative and productive, as generating of ideas by themselves is much better than working in a team. The main arguments the author uses are scientific explorations, probably, mostly psychological and sociological data, which help her to support the fact that group thinking is less effective than the solitude one. First of all, it is because of the division of people into introverts and extraverts. In conformity with this theory, introverts are obviously less in the mood for working together with anybody, as they can’t focus on their job, constantly getting irritated by uncomfortable conditions of being among other people when they’d prefer being alone. Also, many people are distracted by need to be accepted by public and this often stands on their way to creative ideas. It frequently happens that people become suppressed by public influence or prefer to shift their job responsibilities on others, which reduces the effectiveness of common work as distinct from the personal one. One of the most convenient simultaneously solitude and common kinds of communication, according to the author, is the Internet as there people can be both alone and with others.
The arguments at which Susan Cain points out in her essay are definitely reasonable for me. The thing is that I’ve noticed that frequently I’m less effective in group work than when I create something by myself. Probably, this happens because of the multiple of reasons, many of which are mentioned in the essay. Among them are: my shyness while working with others, habit to shift responsibilities on others, and distraction being among others. In addition, the historical evidences show that most geniuses were total introverts and created their ideas while alone. Perhaps, it may also depend on the division of people into the two kinds and introverts may be just less gifted in social aspect being more effective in solitude. And this is a fact that frequently intellectually gifted people suffer from their disability to communicate with others. As they say: to each their own. In general, the opinion essay is definitely useful as it makes you think about some crucial tendencies of group work in business, religion, and education, so you start noticing all the advantages and disadvantages of both solitude and group approaches of working process.
Works Cited
Cain, Susan. “ The Rise of the New Groupthink”. The New York Times. 22 Oct. 2014 http://www. nytimes. com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink. html? pagewanted= all&_r= 1&