Stephen Downes

I think these two statements say very different things: first, that "Art is valuable precisely because it is not easy to create," and second, that "We care about art because it';s a form of connection to other humans." Now, true, sometimes it's hard to connect with other humans, but sometimes it's all too easy (at which point, we begin to value insulation from other humans). I really don't care how hard it was to produce something, at least, not intrinsically. I do value what doing something hard tells me about the person. And none of this tells me how much I should pay for a thing, because all of this is cheapened if it just becomes a form of transaction.