TED
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2011–2021
19:29 · 5.4M views · Feb 9, 2009
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, reflects on the pressure placed on artists to be geniuses. She proposes the older idea that creative people have a genius that visits them rather than being one.
HN people link it in threads about creativity, late bloomers and creative burnout as a humble, relatable take on where inspiration comes from.
4 comments from Hacker News
This TED talk by the author of Eat, Pray, Love addresses the very question at hand: "Who/What is responsible for creativity?". It approaches the question from a very subjective point of view. I haven't read her book, but she is humble and relatable in the video. this video
This is really quite germane: this video . While she talks about writing, I think it applies to the kind of thing you are talking about here.
What are with some of these comments? This is not a story about a man who lost his 401k value. This is about seeing the end of the road and realizing the greatest things you've done you can never do again. Here's a man who is considered by some the greatest american writer (words of my freshman year english prof), who felt like he would "never achieve what he was capable of"(paraphrase). See: [LINK] this video
The idea of a "muse", and "genius" is something that visits you (not something you are). IIRC, this TED talk is about it this video