Spot on. Some of the best teachers I've had never stopped being positive and encouraging, even when I was making a lot of mistakes. The goal was for me to see t

Spot on. Some of the best teachers I've had never stopped being positive and encouraging, even when I was making a lot of mistakes. The goal was for me to see those mistakes, not the teacher. You're also spot on about the "asshole artist" myth. It takes a special person to spend four or six hours a day practicing the piano. I am not that person. The people I have met who are like that tend to be quite severe on themselves, otherwise they'd give up. That doesn't make them a jerk to others, though! Put another way, I've seen a lot of bad writers. Every one of them is replete with self-encouragement and self-congratulation. (I am reminded of that little kid Ralphie writing his theme in the movie A Christmas Story) For the good writers I've seen, they don't carry that kind of self-reassured exuberance around. At best it's a measured competence. Now that I've gotten older I've mostly given up on excelling at any kind of art. I still love and enjoy creating things, and I'm still aware of the myriad number of problem each of my works have. I just don't care as much. Instead I'm much more interested in creating things I personally find interesting or intriguing. When you catch a great picture, come up with a piece of music you love, or write an essay where it all comes together? You get a feeling of "Well hell. That's really interesting! I haven't seen those pieces like that arranged in that way. I wonder why it makes me curious and happy to contemplate?" I joined a FB group that shared photos. I had to no-follow them. They were all really good photographers and they all took really good pictures. But how many times can you tell somebody they're good and you like their work? What I'm interested in when I look at a picture is conflict and tension. Why is that shadow there? Did you mean for the model to be in that awkward position? Those kinds of comments can easily be construed as cutting, but all I'm doing is just looking inside and riffing off the feelings I get. I don't know where the person is going, and I really don't know what they found in this image, so unless they're able to handle all of this tension, there's nothing for me to offer. Great chat. Thanks!