It's amazingly difficult to predict which of one's efforts is going to "stick". I've put years of work into things that ended up being total duds. I've also spe

It's amazingly difficult to predict which of one's efforts is going to "stick". I've put years of work into things that ended up being total duds. I've also spent a few evenings here and there writing things off-the-cuff that ended up becoming famous. Just as we're lucky if we think one truly novel thought in all our lives, we're amazingly lucky if one part of our effort out of 54 becomes part of humanity's collective inheritance. Jules Verne was lucky several times over.