I can't help but be reminded of the Subgenius concept of short duration personal saviours. Maybe it's more like that.
I know I've always idolized people's work to the extent that I didn't understand it. I'd be all impressed, study it hard in different examples until I could figure out what was being done and what further flaws I wasn't seeing at first- and then tbe bloom's off the rose and the hero-worship goes away.
It's very much a factor of something doing exciting things that I don't understand.
There's also the idea that if I can only learn from people who are better than me, that's a built in ceiling and it's setting me up for complacency and arrogance when I do finally have enough mastery of things to do what I want the way I want it.
If I can learn from just whoever, there's no ceiling because I'll always be looking for the times when someone is doing something I missed.
Of course you asked Steve, not me- so now we can find out where _you_ are in this equation
I'm curious what he'll say too.
