Speaking as a boring professional, yes, artists may be insufferable in plenty of ways, but boring they are not and their presence is important for establishing and growing a local culture, whereas professionals are good for growing an economy and both are needed for a healthy, vibrant city.

I know some artists, and many of them are definitely boring :-) Just because someone decides to be an artist and sticks seashells on a model house doesn't make them interesting. And why would, for example, playing a trumpet well make you intrinsically more interesting than mastering complex mathematics?

I'd rather have lunch with the mathematician. In fact, Feynman is at the top of the list of people I'd like to have lunch with, and it's not about his bongo drum playing.

(P.S. I learned to play the trumpet in my youth.)

Because most people can relate to music on an emotional level better than they can relate to complex mathematics.

It sounds like you know some pretty terrible artists, though. I mean, seashells on a model house?

PS. Feynman is Feynman for a reason.

People who only relate on an emotional level and don't appreciate intellectual complexity are - wait for it - boring.

You said only, not me. Great art is heavy on intellectual complexity.

The Beatles made some of the greatest music in history, but "she loves you yeah yeah yeah" is a mite lacking in intellectual complexity.

You're going to bring up the Beatles, and not bring up Tomorrow Never Knows or Blue Jay Way or anything off of Sgt. Pepper?

And all art has a wide expanse between commercially available and popular, and the avant garde, and within that range is another range between simplicity and complexity.

Art also encompasses film, fiction, the visual arts, music. All of which have a massive range of intellectual importance and depth.

No offense, but I feel as though you're showing your ignorance much more than proving your point.

> All of which have a massive range

Of course they do. I'm merely challenging your claim "Great art is heavy on intellectual complexity." There's no doubt at all that "She Loves You" is a great song. Personally, I prefer the earlier Beatles tunes rather than Sgt Pepper. Perhaps you could quote from the latter some lyrics that have deep meaning to you?

I also greatly enjoy Led Zeppelin, have every album, even cover albums, but am under no illusions about the intellectual complexity of "squeeze my lemon".

There are great examples of lyricism in music. There are great examples of production. There are great examples of musicianship. And there are great examples of songwriting. Each has varying levels of complexity.

Nobody celebrates Led Zeppelin for their lyricism, but I think you knew that already.

Far from making greatest works even in modern music, but they made greatness accessible.

> accessible

I was always baffled by what that was supposed to mean.

Artists generally have a pretty profound application of intellect to their work, which is usually much more conceptually interesting than building a CRUD app.

And they also work with people who don't take an intellectual approach to their production but rather follow intuition.

One thing is certain: it's a more heterogenous environment. I find that to be extremely stimulating.

> Artists generally have a pretty profound application of intellect to their work, which is usually much more conceptually interesting than building a CRUD app.

Deciding to become an artist doesn't make one profound or conceptually interesting. Rather few artists achieve that. The starving artist community generally has not, which is why they are starving.

After all, how many TV shows you watch are "pretty intellectually profound"? And those artists are good enough to get paid for their work, most aren't.

This whole thread sounds like hurt feelings.

Generally speaking yes, I think artists add an element of interest and entropy in an area compared to professionals in white collar positions.

Wouldn't agree on the 'wonderful' or 'unappealing' value judgments though; I think you added them for rhetorical emphasis.

I did add "wonderful" for rhetorical emphasis, but "unappealing" came from the parent.

> So artists are wonderful, interesting people, and professionals are boring and unappealing? Wow.

Well, this fine article is partly about Richard Florida, and that's basically what he's saying: keep the creative class around, because they are the ones that add value to a city. Boring professionals flock to neighborhoods put on the map because creative people making them destinations.

In Denver, see the River North neighborhood. What once was a very vibrant place to see DIY shows, gallerys, etc, is now just a brewery neighborhood. Some underground venues were closed by the city and the one-year anniversary of this is coming up. The city shows no interest in providing an alternative. I guess this isn't very important to most, but these spaces were a safe place for many people to go: homeless teenagers, trans-folk, etc.

http://www.westword.com/music/rhinoceropolis-diy-venue-shut-...

Hmm, yes?

There's only so much after-work talk I can tolerate about app servers. I want to go to the theater, watch plays, and see bands. The people who have those interests are not particularly enchanted by traditional professional careers.

I bet you'd get bored at watching plays 40 hrs a week, too.