It's ridiculous to expect brilliance"

“It's ridiculous to expect brilliance”

You're right. We have a tendency to imagine those who produce brilliant work as, more or less, perpetually inspired. We imagine them as exceptions to the rules that we feel bind us to our mediocrity.

I played classical guitar when I was a kid. One time I had the opportunity to take several lessons with a guitarist who was in town to give a series of performances. I remember the concerts vividly. He brought strange and dark music to life with performances that were brilliant. They were, technically flawless , musically inspired, and executed with ease. This was the first time I saw a master. I heard him practicing when I showed up early for my first lesson, and was shocked to hear him making mistakes. I couldn't fathom this. How could someone who was so gifted at something also sound so...average? I've commited this same sort of mental error many times since then, and when Katie wrote that it is ridiculous to expect constant brilliance from someone, this drove home an inconsistency in the way we see the world that has afflicted me for years.