When I see tons of similar projects pop up in a short time period (such as chat applications recently), I am feeling kind of divided.

On one hand, it's cool, someone spent their time and actually shipped something. That's great, really.

But on other hand, all the hard work could be utilized so much better if a few people joined their efforts to produce one great product rather than a few less polished ones. Is it that people prefer to work alone? Or is it just too hard to join an existing project (e.g. lack of docs, build procedure and general workflow is too inconvenient)? Or maybe it's too hard to find a project that you'd love to join?

It's not something aimed personal at the OP, really no, just a though I am having when I see similar things.