The Irreplaceables Dept.

The other night I was talking to a close friend about a whole passel of issues involving creativity, and one of the things that popped out was how easy it is to start second-guessing yourself — how easy it is to start contorting yourself into the position where you give people what you thinktheywant (easy [allegedly]),instead of trying to figure out how to make them interested in whatyoudo (much harder).

I put it like this: "When you give yourself creative freedom that doesn't think much about...