Well, not exactly—but T-Paine’s words about how we value things still resonate today:

We humans are fairly good at pricing effort (notably in dollars paid per hour worked), but we struggle much more with pricing value. Cue the possibly apocryphal story about Picasso asking $10,000 for a drawing he sketched in a matter of seconds, but the ability to create which had taken him a lifetime.

A couple of related thoughts:

• My artist friend is a former Olympic athlete who talks about how people bond through shared struggle, particularly in athletics. For him, someone using AI-powered tools is similar to a guy showing up at the gym with a forklift, using it to move a bunch of weight, and then wanting to bond afterwards with the actual weightlifters.
• I see ostensible thought leaders crowing about the importance of “taste,” but I wonder how they think that taste is or will be developed in the absence of effort.
• As was said of—and by?—Steve Jobs, “The journey is the reward.”

[Via Louis DeScioli]