I don't want to rebut anything you say, but I will add one observation. > I think that's highly unusual in a social environment Agreed, but in my experience o

I don't want to rebut anything you say, but I will add one observation. > I think that's highly unusual in a social environment Agreed, but in my experience of startups particularly, this becomes more commonplace with older founders. It can also form the basis of an high-performance enclave within otherwise ossified large companies/institutions; these tend to get dragged down by the mediocrity police after a few years, but in the meantime you can get some good stuff done. Whether the music industry analogy is valid may be debatable, but I've had the privilege of seeing it first-hand, music was/is the family business, I grew up knocking around recording studios. So this mindset is engraved on my expectations of all talent-based professions, and I try to remember it whenever I fail to be humble.