[fintelia]

For a thread about not stereotyping elite teams, there is an awful lot of stereotyping of low performing teams...

Perhaps the most alarming (and absolutely false) allegation is that these teams do not put in as much hard work or thought as the elite teams do. It just simply not true. All teams work hard and employ the resources available to them, as they should.

As far as eliminating bag and tag, I think a lot of people are over estimating the effect it would have for low performing teams. Time is already one of the most evenly distributed resources. Having a few extra weeks of (less productive) time comes out to be around 1.5x as much as teams that only work the 6 weeks. By contrast these same times may have 4 or 5 times as many members, vastly larger budgets, and (most significantly) many more mentors. I also suspect that the best teams would be able to use the extra time far better, making the gap between the best and worst teams wider not narrower.