[walterbell]

Generic answer for humans: unconditional love.

Tactical suggestion for technical person with high standards: read biographies of overachieving polymaths and geniuses (e.g. Charles Pearce).

This will illustrate both the futility of inter-human comparisons and the critical importance of comparisons among all possible versions of you-the-single-human. To compare possible versions of a single human implies prototyping, which means "projects that suck" and "versions of you that suck". Thus, someone afraid of looking bad is ironically unlikely to seek/explore/reach their potential.

You are the project. What matters most are the side effects of projects upon you and other human beings, since these form a feedback loop which influence you and other human beings. There are projects/activities which require no technology, which can have profound side effects on humans.