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by nonrandomstring 1427 days ago
> it is a luxury and we only put up with it because they are wealthy.

You're right, but let's see this in a different way.

Let's not devalue Art too much. What you speak of is a more general problem, that the race is not to the swift... Humanity faces myriad problems, all solvable by smart, motivated young people. Yet we fail because we do not motivate, reward and support them to become all they can be. We turn their "solid technical contributions" around and make them the very thing that keeps us stuck in bureaucracy and systemised hopelessness. Without the spark of "art", the imagination that Einstein and Feynman spoke of, teche is no more valuable than wanky modern art [1].

Our interregnum then becomes one of disappointment and frustration for most, who cannot exercise their power as creative, rational and compassionate beings. Ironically, the thing that often signals a new direction and seeds revolutionary progress is Art. It's proper place is in the hands of the poor and disenfranchised. In the hands of the trustafarians it's just more stuckness for the status quo.

Creativity is not a product. It's an attitude, as applicable to computer science as to sculpture, oil painting, or music.

[1] see C.P Snow's "Two Cultures" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures