Very interesting posts recently over on Seth Godin's blog.

To an artist, point "C" on Seth's graph is very familiar. It's the up all night, throwing stuff across the room, avoiding your landlord part of the creative cycle right before the big breakthrough that pushes your game to a whole new level.

I think about Walt Disney. How the man "hit the wall" so often, usually after some big breakthrough. The temptation is to do more of the same. Bigger! Better! Snow White II: Double the Dwarfs, Double the Action!!! This is what was expected of him after the huge success of his animated short "Three Little Pigs." So the story goes. Walt was asked "So, when can we expect the follow-up to Three Little Pigs?" Walt's response: "Never. You can't top pigs with pigs."

From an artist's standpoint, the safe thing to do is to try and top pigs with pigs. The brilliant thing is to top pigs with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

I only hope I can be so brave.