Communications of the ACM
Most of us, in the field of computing, like to believe we are good team players. This seems not just the politically correct line, but also makes our work more feel more enjoyable [1]. I am encompassing in my discussion a fairly wide swath, those who are in research, both academic and industrial, in the broad field of computing.
The question is does this also lead to the most productive outcomes? Does this lead to algorithms that have the greatest impact? Does this lead to computing systems that have the greatest uptake? I will take a peek at the history of computing to see if the pioneering early developments were also the results of team effort. I will give you my opinions and then give you some arguably cherry-picked statistics behind my opinions.
We have a romantic picture of a splendid genius who toils by herself and comes up with an age-defining invention. That romantic picture has been built up through many history lessons — Archimedes jumping up from his bath having discovered the laws of buoyancy, or Newton being bonked on the head to realize the laws of gravitation. Apocryphal some of these incidents may be, but they have a powerful hold on our imagination.
