I think one of the hardest things to master (if it makes sense to master such a thig) in life is relationship. All kinds of relationship issues come up in various contexts. It's kinda sad, but true. Even in the fine arts it's unavoidable... Unless you reach the very top and opt to only give orders to your "people" and are willing to survive on your own that is... Ok, that's a bit too grim... Lemme show you the brighter side...

When talented individuals get together in one place and actually work together on a truly collaborative material, the result is simply... astonishing. I have again and again felt this come true in real life. It's extremely addictive to see talented people complementing each other's skills and producing somethig no one person in the team could have achieved alone. Now back to the grim side. In order to produce that astonishing result, everyone in the team need to deal with everyone else. If you think it's all gonna be fun and games, then you're dead wrong. Everybody has thier talent, and everyone has their own style, opinion, etc... The more talented they are and less collabroation experience they have, the worse the "dealing with everyone else" problem gets... Sometimes it's the egos clashing, personalities clashing, or simply people who are more organized, dedicated and motivated versus people who aren't clashing, etc.. You've heard me rant about collaborating with talented undergraduate students. There is no denying that in every single "cool" projet that I've worked on, I had to deal with people. I can say that I've gotten much better at it, but my tolerance level isn't on par with Confucius. What drives me to keep going back for more is the times when things really work well. Those moements when everyone in the team really gets to show their talent off and produce somethig truly extraordinary. It's my drug of choice. However, the price of buying this drug is way higher than any drug people buy over the counter or on the streets. The price is time and patience. Those of you who know me well will know how much I value time. I hate wasting time. I hate other people wasting my time even more. Collaboration efforts end up testing my patience for others wasting my time... But, the effect of the drug must be truly something, cuz I just can't get off it... Until somebody comes up with a "creative result" rehab or something I don't see myself getting off of this drug no matter how painful the process is.... *SIGH* I'm a junky...