Remembering the group

I made my first living as a cater-waiter with a popular NYC catering and event company. We'd throw parties at iconic venues with up to 50 waiters, 500+ guests.

Sometimes a party wouldn't end until one o'clock / two o'clock in the morning. As the party wound down, I would usually find myself frozen in place, staring at an abyss of icing-smeared plates and lipstick-marred wine glasses, immobilized by the prospect of cleaning up such a mess on my own.

Of course, I wasn't on my own. I was part of a team. Less than an hour later, when the mess had magically disappeared, I would remember that and feel foolish.

Humans are not lone problem solvers. Ability, knowledge, insight, and strength are distributed amongst us, so we are more effective in groups.

The 2010 Chilean mine rescue was a group heroic.

So was the Declaration of Independence and the war that followed. So will be our next iteration.

So will be parenting, and economics, and weather, and illness.

The most important step in living and solving any problem is building a team (or remembering they're there). Everything else flows from that.

In isolation is where we get stuck.