The Coordinates of Teamwork (U,I)

At the very beginning of the school year, in our American Studies class, we spent an hour or so on an activity. We drew an arbitrary letter up on the whiteboard, and then were told to promptly forget it was a letter, and to think up other objects the picture could be. Together as a class, we were able to come up with many, many more responses than any individual one of us could. And this leads to a pondering of just how much of a role cooperation and teamwork play in an ordinary day-to-day life.

For one thing, most inventions and trinkets that we rely on so heavily would not have been invented without intense amounts of teamwork. For example, let's examine the lightbulb. Here's a direct quote from the Wikipedia about the light-bulb's accredited inventor: "[Thomas Edison] was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory." He was basically the inventor of the factory-line! Another invention life would be dramatically different without is the atomic bomb. It was developed by a crew of scientists working at breakneck speed, but more importantly, a crew of scientists working together, sharing data and bouncing ideas back and forth.

We ourselves go through an incredible amount of teamwork in an ordinary day, though most of it is rarely noticed or paid attention to. Traffic? A large group of vehicles, driven by people, that moves according to a set of orderly and enforced laws. Drive on the right side of the road, stop at stop signs, turn on the blinker lights before making a turn. While this cooperation can be seen as forced and not genuine teamwork, I would disagree. Regardless of why, the majority of drivers comply with these rules of the road, and work together, if inadvertently, to make progress on the road and arrive at their respective destinations. Is there anything that can be accomplished without some form of teamwork?