I am going to write my experience about group projects, studies and other initiatives which were undertaken by me with one or more people excluding me. The crux of it is, I am not a big fan of group projects, but there exists exceptions.
The earliest group projects I have done are in the school, mostly making some models from cardboard and that was it. It was fairly simple and people had equal contributions to it as far as I can remember.
The one major group project that I undertook was in my junior college, the project that me and 4 others made for our Electronics practicals. It was a long and intense project, and this is where the problem starts. Out of 5 team members, only 2 did the 80% of work. Me and my friend who actually had interest in the the stuff we were doing. It was a fun endeavor for me. I would not be complaining if it was just me and him who were responsible for it. But there were 3 more, who did absolutely nothing but still got the credit. This is something that I do not like. Not because they are getting fruit of my efforts but because it is not how it is supposed to be made. It is not a group project if only two people are doing it. The problem I see here was the incompetency of the other people and lack of interest. Well this is a bit understandable because we were forced to work together.
The next project that I have undertook is a website project which me and some people from my senior college decided to make. In a very professional setup. Everything was going good but then then our exams came and the project just went into todo lists and github issues and has not come back from there, even after the exams are over. But that was not the only problem with that project, there was also an issue of schedules of different people and different work intensity of different teams. This is another problem that I see with group projects, the differences between people’s working habits, schedules and objectives.
These were all the group projects, now comes the group studies.
I remember one instance when I was in school, we were told to learn speeches, we had to deliver those speeches in other school. Me and my friends were made to sit in the library and the teacher just left. We did everything but learn the speech.
I have also decided a lot of times to start some course, some subject or prepare for some exam with different people. It lasts a maximum of 10 days. The 10 day figure is also very generous. I don’t think it lasts so long.
Most of the times these study goals are shattered due to some event that comes along in either of the person’s path. It then goes to todo lists again.
Okay let it be, let’s stop the complaining. What is the solution.
The solution is to not be dependent on a buddy or a team. You might consider adding people to the journey you walk. But you shall also be ready to make it yourself.
I can do it alone, if someone comes along it is better, if they leave in the middle, it’s okay, I will do it anyway.