| The world is full of smart, curious, active people who are neither brilliant nor delusional. One problem we do have is that (in the States, especially), our culture is geared around individual careers. Meaning we don't have a supportive culture for people creating stuff on their own - or really a strong culture of forming small supportive teams. I do think the tech world (and, even if you really oppose it in general, the crypto world) has a lot of people forming teams to do cool stuff. So that's a culture which is a counterexample to what I just said. Given such a generally atomized (or actively unhelpful) culture, you're more likely to have a few breakouts ("brilliant") and a lot of more normal folks who can't make it ("delusional"). Nevertheless, I think giving grants to free more people up to start figuring out how to do creative work on their own (or, better, form networks and groups to support them socially) is a very good start. In other words, it's not about just sorting the wheat from the chaff - it's more about helping more people to start muddling their way to a happy and helpful place. With that said, I'm glad you've surfaced this concern, as it is certainly a common one. |