The TED talk mentioned reminds me of "You and Your Research" by Richard Hamming: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virgin

The TED talk mentioned reminds me of "You and Your Research" by Richard Hamming: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html Hamming asserts that people who have done great work fail to "plant acorns." They chase another great revelation instead of stepping back to the fundamental level where they started, and spend the rest of their life only working on great problems, not useful subproblems. I see no reason an artist's success would be different.