Alan Kay suggests that good inventors are like Michelangelo, both imagining the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—and also spending years on their back painting it! Part visionary, part obsessive craftsperson.
I wonder about auteurs in film—hundreds of staff doing detail work!
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Maybe one principle is that it’s possible to (partially) delegate to someone else who is themselves Michelangelo-like in that way.
Like: maybe Wes Anderson’s set dressers are just as visionary and obsessive as he is, so he can let them do some of the “painting”?
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Likewise in games: maybe an auteur-like direct can “outsource” only to a level designer who will themselves bring auteur-like sensibilities—and not to a “technician”? suggests experiences along these lines in his comments about The Witness’s team.
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I wonder if the important element is not so much whether he painted it single-handedly as much as that he was up there, on his back, “with candle wax dripping into his eye” for four years alongside maybe-assistants. That’s not delegation!
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Replying to @andy_matuschak
As far as I know, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Rafael all had apprentices that also spent time on their backs actually painting - Sistine Chapel painted by more than one brush.
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I sometimes wonder what would happen if films allowed for one persons obsessive crafting over years. Even animation seems like it requires too much expertise in too many tools and areas for it to be manageable by one person?
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You might enjoy The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness on Miyazaki. It’s shocking how much he does himself! He’s personally drawing so much by hand—it’s wild.
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I am not an expert, but my understanding is that the 'old masters' were usually school masters who taught their art? And their apprentices did much of the grunt work? Not as monstrous as the modern movie biz, but enterprises nonetheless.
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As far as I know, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Rafael all had apprentices that also spent time on their backs actually painting - Sistine Chapel painted by more than one brush.
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My guess: Their obsession with their vision will drive away anyone who cannot both live up to their high standards in execution & align with their vision. E.g. a set dresser needs to "get" Anderson's vision and work to make it real above all else, not have their own original one.
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generally, creations have identity independent of whoever made it: eg editors help writers make writing more like what it "should be". Creation is a region in a high-dimensional space. Auteurs are people who can find interesting regions; once it's found, others can help refine it
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