"It’s inspiring to see someone be Great. You see them do their thing and tell yourself, “I could never do that.” What you don’t see is the practice. It’s the invisible years they spent working on getting better. The incessant failure. The friends and family who innocently and deflatingly asked, “Why are you working so hard?”"

@rands I once saw equivalent distinctions about levels in a dissertation on emacs customisations, ranging from copy and paste to major contributor, with about the same proportions. Sorry, no reference.