A dream that only works if strangers clap is fragile. Build one you’d love in an empty room.

Applause is weather. It arrives for reasons that have little to do with the quality of the work and leaves the same way, which puts the power switch in somebody else’s hand. Wanting to be seen is normal, not a flaw. The real question is whether anything is left in the activity when nobody is watching, because that leftover part carries you through the quiet stretches.

Try one session this week with the posting switched off. Play the song, shoot the shots, write the page, and tell nobody. Notice whether you still liked it.