Tangential, but it always irks me when people who do interesting things get exalted as geniuses. To me, it's just a roundabout way of allowing yourself to lower

Tangential, but it always irks me when people who do interesting things get exalted as geniuses. To me, it's just a roundabout way of allowing yourself to lower your expectations: "that guy/gal is a genius, so clearly I shouldn't even bother trying to accomplish things on their level". Recently, I've been really impressed by the stuff Bret Victor, Vi Hart, and Nicky Case have been doing. But I don't put them on a pedestal. I dig into their source code, learn some lessons, and set my goals a little higher. That's how we make progress. This isn't just a tech problem, either. The concept of "canonical" artists, writers, and musicians can really stifle creativity and make people aim way lower than they ought to.