Or, you might come to realize that you've done your job - and beyond that, nothing is your responsibility.

That is the key element I am trying to get at with my post.

When people pursue their passion, they also need to be able to let their work go. Do it, do it well, and then wash your hands of it. Don't think about it again. Because your beautiful work will be modified before it gets released.... and that's the part people don't talk about.

You've been payed not to babysit someone but to write stuff; you did.

And it still boggles my mind that this is worth $80k/year to people. Not that I'm complaining, or anything! It is nice to make good money for my work.

Just because someone pours Coca Cola over the amazing whisky that I've made doesn't make my work any less or the drink any worse - it just makes for a person who can't or doesn't want to have a refined taste for alcoholic beverages. And fuck tearing myself a new one over that poor schmuck: that isn't worth it. I'd rather enjoy the fact that I did good, no matter the result, because it's not the result that you're going to live with - it's your part in it.

While I agree completely with your sentiments here, I think there is a danger here, too.

Elitism. Hipsterism. Clubbiness.

There are people who appreciate refined things. Things of unique quality. Things of particular beauty.

And these are not the people you will work with on a general basis. Because most people don't have that specific palate to taste the details in your whisky. They are the 90% of the population that they make Jack Daniels for. (The people who make Jack Daniels are not craftsmen, they are manufacturers following a formula and a process.)

So... yeah.

When we promote the "follow your bliss" story, we need to be intellectually honest with the people we are talking to, and let them know that there is an internal personal journey they need to go on at the same time. They need to learn to let go, to release their work into the wild, to learn that the work they create is going to be the base upon which others build. Not that they are a special snowflake, unique unto the universe.