Explaining Armstrong

"Doing inspired work in order to get famous is like eating a great dinner in order to take a shit." -- Banksy

The best way to understand Neil Armstrong's aloof relationship with press and public is to consider the life of his hero, Charles Lindbergh. This well-written profile of Lindbergh's daughter, Reeve, reveals that what appeared, from outside, as baffling reclusiveness was just someone trying to live a normal life.

Having worked to accomplish something noteworthy, you must choose whether to circle around to inhabit your own contrail of noteworthiness, or to blithely continue the doing. Your choice reveals your motivation for having done the work in the first place.

Doing good work is infinitely satisfying in and of itself. Inhabiting the acclaim is as satisfying as sniffing one's own farts.