Team Shmeam

“Teamwork” isn’t all it’s smacked up to be. What actually makes people quarrel is confusion about what “game” they are playing.

If we’re all playing basketball, and some guy comes along and joins the game, but he starts expecting us to follow football rules… well, it won’t be long before we start arguing. That’s because we would no longer be playing “basketball”—we’d be playing “basketball de facto football”… where we use basketball words, call it “basketball”, but, actually, it’s football.

Probably, we wouldn’t get along with that guy. He might start condemning us for “not being team players”. Actually, we are great team players, but, we’re a team at playing “basketball”, not “basketball de facto football”.

The only people who could get along with him, well, probably don’t like to call things what they are. His only friends—the “team players” as he refers to them—like to play football, call it “basketball”, and tell everyone else we’re stupid and “don’t play well with others”.  · · · →