The mind is built for collaboration, yet we lionize individual achievement. We imagine our heroes toiling in isolation, mastering all necessary skills, and solving critical problems before moving on to their next world-altering pursuit. This is a myth. According to cognitive science professors and authors of the new book The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone, great accomplishments demand the ability to share knowledge and work together to solve problems. By worshipping individual achievement without appreciating the communal nature of thinking, we build unrealistic expectations of ourselves and react angrily with ourselves when we don’t know something. Rather, we should recognize that individuals cannot be masters of every topic and place more emphasis on how much an individual improves a group’s ability to solve complex problems.
