It's not enough to be aware of the domain you're working in, you need to understand it. Noticing things and being curious about how they work is the single most common trait I see in creative people. Once you can break the components down, you can put them back together into something brand new.

The very fact that it might not work is precisely why you should and must do this.

We've been trained to prefer being right to learning something, to prefer passing the test to making a difference, and most of all to prefer fitting in with the right people

The lizard isn't listening and the lizard doesn't care.

Just because you’re winning a game doesn’t mean it’s a good game.

Your being alone is important and has validity beyond any philosophy. That is the message that you are trying to give to yourself. You are each trying to rediscover for yourselves, in your terms now - after centuries of myths and distortions - the validity of your own beings.

It is not virtuous in any way to put yourself down, or to punish yourself, because you do not feel you have lived up to your best behavior at any given time.