Stephen Downes

Rachel Botsman warns against a future of "creativity without craft." She draws on Scott Belsky to describe what that means: "'the messy middle' as the essential part of any creative process - the part that teaches you patience, craft, and resilience. It's where mistakes live. Where wrong turns reshape your intuition. Where you learn to sit with the discomfort of not knowing. And the part I love the most, is the deeper you go in this process, the clearer the idea gets." Fair enough, but there's another aspect to consider: the people who need bread mostly don't care about the creativity of the baker. Sure, I too love a beautifully hand-crafted loaf, but not so much that I'm willing to see bread priced out of the reach of most people. Creativity is the conceit of the creator.