"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize."

This is definitely one of my top ten quotes.
(Thank you Marnie, New Jersey girl and writing friend.)

Thank you too, Robert Hughes, Australian art critic, who said it first. He certainly gets my vote for taking issue with Mr. Formaldehyde Shark Damien Hirst about "the extreme disproportion between his expected prices and his actual talent."

I mean, come ON, people!

Yesterday was a day of learning interesting things. (Actually, most of my days are. There's an awful lot I don't know.)

Yesterday was the day when another writing friend - thanks Matias, Buenos Aires Boy - introduced me to the Dunning–Kruger effect.

Brace yourselves...

"The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to appreciate their mistakes."

"The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority."

AT LAST, I understand why Alfie is such a bundle of insecurities. He's just one super smart horse suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect.