Friends are Electric

Who has respect for the artist who loves their own work as though it were perfection? Is it even possible to respect such a being?

There is nothing wrong with someone liking their work. Their work is a part of them, in the sense that they made it and that the making of it is part of their history. Self-loathing is not an admirable trait. But neither is vanity.

The artist should have great love for his work, but should not become so lost in this love that they forget that they are just a small part of something. A love for self blinds people to the world around them and takes them out of it, and thus their work out of it. From outside, how can the great works be produced?

Technical skill is not genius. True works of genius may be fundamentally flawed. Pure skill may produce technically beautiful works, but they shall be devoid of emotion without genius. The skilled operator can produce thousands of identical products, it takes genius to stand out.

One cannot forget memory when considering such things. The past is important. Humans are not defined by thermodynamic state functions. We are all path dependent as our past defines who we are. Expecting one to ignore this is the utmost foolishness.

True genius is thus too dependent on the journey. What can we love which is not of ourselves?