To elaborate what I was thinking:
Creative effort is usually positive sum. It’s additive. More artists is generally always good. Some might be spare time. Some might not be considered artists by others.
The views of others, fame, and wealth aren’t measures of your roll in life. If your startup doesn’t make it, you’re still an entrepreneur for trying.
If a ‘rebel’ means someone who “Thinks Different” a la Apple, then everyone can be a rebel, and it doesn’t diminish the originals. A creative rebel is just someone who discriminates - who examines matters rather than riding assumptions.
> @ikirigin Would love an elaboration. My point: when the bar is low and the playing field level, the true opportunities decrease in kind.
This isn’t true, unless you’re describing “true opportunities” as hitting a home run like Google. In that case, being the best is harder with more players. I’d argue that being great is easier with more players. Again, many creative tasks are positive sum.
From a collective perspective, it is a tautology that the lower barrier to entry, the greater collective opportunity. The cumulative level of content increased in the transition from the Big 3 broadcasters to YouTube.
From an individual perspective, pick any field and compare. Now that web sites are cheap to build, there are greater opportunities for more people. Now that a laptop and a cheap HD camera act as a movie studio, more good films will be made and more people will make them that wouldn’t have otherwise.
Areas that aren’t positive sum could be negatively affected. For example, “saving the world”. Donor fatigue is very real. If everyone is a non-profit asking for your help, there could be an absolute smaller amount donated. (This is why I’m very biased towards mutually beneficial transactions. There is no Self-Interest-Fatigue. )
This issue can generally be characterized by whether there is an upper bound on number of people working in creative fields. I don’t think there is an upper bound. If there is, that’s bad news for when robots make your non-creative job obsolete, sooner than you think.
