InfraStruct

Creation, be it the act of an artist, a child, a marketer, a builder, a scientist, a founder, an employee, a customer, a friend, a blogger, a donor - any producer - is a glorious act. At the point of creation, all the infinite options of the past collapse into one manifestation that is shareable. The act itself is unique, even if it is later replicated, even perfectly, in another place or another time. Creation is the ability to freeze all available options at any moment in time or extent of space and to select one as the reality, a reality that simply leaves an imprint. This imprint is the memory. Call it name, form or experience, it is a remembrance of an identity that has been created. It is not easy to see in every instance. Great products and ideas are easily seen as ones that create memories. The iPhone, Mozart #41, The Bhagavad Gita, Euclid's Elements - are ways to create an experience that can be shared. Without someone to share them, they are individual instances. Wi

It seems that beyond a threshold, rules flip their meaning. Instead of limiting everyone's possible paths, they become a limit on who is allowed to break them. This flip depends on the level of hierarchy in a group, the amount of direct communication between people, and the scale of cooperation involved. In extreme cases, clout is purely a function of rule breaking (think mafia). Call it 'unfair advantage', 'the inmates are ruling the asylum' or anything else, but it is real. It is not going away. And as idealists, we will fail if we wish it away. Rule breaking is a necessity in art and individual mastery, and inevitable to excellence. Without the Icarus in us, the Daedalus won't be remembered for long. Karna-the-plodder was greater than Arjuna-the-ordained. We see the flip when rule-breaking is applied for power or position or individual advantage. It debilitates exceedingly good work when this happens. We have all seen it. We all know it when we see