People want to perfect complex subjects more than easy subjects.

Ken Adelman: I think that it’s more of a Greek philosophy that you have a . . .You have a lot in life. And Aristotle taught us that you take your. . . and you kind of realize where it is, and you try to fill it up as much as you can. And Aristotle also taught a very good lesson, that people like naturally . . . there’s something inherent about human beings about wanting to perfect whatever you do. And he tries to understand why this is, but he doesn’t get at it. And he says, “It’s clear. People like to perfect what they do.”

Now the second is far more . . . even more insightful. And that is people like to perfect complicated subjects more than easy subjects. So in a very simple analogy, no one becomes a fanatic on checkers. I’ve never seen somebody say, “Oh my gosh. I love checkers. I just think of checkers all the time.” It’s a simple game. But chess, you find lots of fanatics in chess. Their whole life revolves around chess. Why? Because chess is complicated. And so there you . . . to perfect it, it takes a lot of effort. So I think that there is a great attraction to taking something hard like Shakespeare, or like understanding the arts, and try to perfect that rather than take something simple and perfecting that. That’s why musicians are so stretched because, you know, it’s very hard to be a very good musician. Anybody in the arts has stressed a lot . . . stretched a lot because it’s complicated. And Aristotle would tell you that’s what makes it so much fun. And it makes it very frustrating because there’s not much margin for error.

Recorded on: 7/2/07