This video from Ira Glass (of This American Life fame) sums up the discrepancy between taste and ability beautifully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0x

This video from Ira Glass (of This American Life fame) sums up the discrepancy between taste and ability beautifully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE He talks about how you get into a creative field because there are works of it which you love and you can distinguish early on between good/interesting and bad/banal work. But then you start making stuff. And for the first few years, it just isn't very good, and you realize that. He talks about bridging that gap and how it took him eight (!) years before he started making things which he even recognized as being interesting and good. It's probably the best piece of advice I've ever seen for people still at the frustrating end of a creative career. I know too many kids who showed an early eye for quality in some field (architecture, CS, etc) but then gave up out of frustration when the stuff they made wasn't up their own standards.