Your thoughts on cleverness reminded me of this quote from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Talent is sort of a dark gift ... talent is its own expectatio

Your thoughts on cleverness reminded me of this quote from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Talent is sort of a dark gift ... talent is its own expectation: it is there from the start and either lived up to or lost.... Here is how to avoid thinking about any of this by practicing and playing until everything runs on autopilot and talent's unconscious exercise becomes a way to escape yourself, a long waking dream of pure play. The irony is that this makes you very good, and you start to become regarded as having a prodigious talent to live up to...