Let him work alone — he failed, and it was the most polite thing you could do

A student demanded to work alone on a group programming project. That’s like a guy at a jazz band rehearsal saying, “I’ll sit out the metronome, thanks.” Confident, wrong, and very soon asking why the sax section hates him.

OP says he complied because the student wouldn’t budge. Solid move: give unreasonable requests their wish and watch entropy do the heavy lifting. The Reddit comment nailed it—“This is a guy that should fail. He doesn’t understand the material, at all.” Yeah, give him solo credit and a solo crash. Don’t micromanage Darwinism.

Other folks said they’d seen the same face at a thesis defense — “we all saw it… he obviously didn’t know what was writing in.” Translation: he’ll blame everyone later. Classic: blame the professor, not the months of Netflix you put between lecture notes and graduation.

Mic drop: letting stubborn incompetence go solo is kind. You don’t make him learn by doing his work for him; you make him learn by doing it badly alone—and, with any luck, remembering the taste of failure next semester when he tries the group again. Comedy.