The market was the witness
For years the thing that confirmed my work was money, and money has no mood, no history with me and nothing it needs back. When the income went, the reading went with it, and what was left was people, who
Appreciation is not evaluation
Two things get filed under being seen: a person responding to the fact that you made something, and a person able to tell you which part of it works. Only the second one carries information, and I spent years reading
The witness mechanism
A person who has been told often enough that his read is wrong stops trusting his own read on his own work. So he attaches himself to other people's projects, not for the company, but for the witness: someone whose