Eternal Apprentice Ethos
You will not become a master at any craft through ten thousand mindless hours, or ten thousand heedless failures. Act and learn deliberately.
Concentration, not attrition.
You will only notice your mastery once you have already attained it, when you have long since stopped caring about mastery. The same is true of style, and of wisdom.
Progression, not desperation.
Never confuse the concept of the craft for the craft itself. The most skilled carpenter still spends most of their time cutting wood.
Pragmatism, not romanticism.
You will inevitably compare your work against others, so do what only you might do; you cannot do otherwise. Do what others do only to learn why they do it.
Improvisation, not juxtaposition.
You cannot make mistakes when learning; making mistakes is learning. If you cannot learn to enjoy imperfection, you will never come remotely close to perfection.
Experimentation, not resignation.