Having been at a few different companies ranging from larger teams within more corporate environments to working as the sole developer on projects my experiences are varied to say the least. I truly believe that we learn the most when we are surrounded by others, challenged on our opinions and approaches, regardless of how strongly we feel. This is also one of the reasons I love mentoring, to be put into a position where I am forced to justify what I believe. However, I can't help but feel that sometimes too many cooks create large inefficiencies.

No engineer is perfect and we all miss things but the more different environments I work in the more I believe that getting things done is imperative to building successful products. A saas product that has an MVP shipped within a week is far more likely to succeed than one where 5 engineers argue over the best approach for an edge case that has almost no impact on any users. I have the same feeling towards meetings too; some teams seem to have a meeting about a meeting because they believe it's the done thing, others communicate asynchronously and build. So where is the balance?

Engineering teams are expensive and time is money. This is why I would love to see teams focus less on wasting developer hours and more focus on shipping fast with an emphasis on seeking help or even just a sanity check if needed. We as engineers should be proactive, independent and curious but we should not be afraid to speak with others. I'm a big advocate for bringing solutions along with any questions where possible and creating a culture where we seek to build not only ourselves but those around us without spending our lives in meetings with just one or two people talking.