A samurai commisioned an artist to produce an ink drawing of a rooster. The artist named a princely sum to produce it, & stated that he required 5 years to make it. The samurai agreed, & paid the artist, & waited the 5 years. After the 5 years had elapsed, the samurai called for the artist the artist came before him. The samurai asked the artist for the rooster ink drawing. The artist placed a sheet of paper on the ground before him, a blank sheet, placed a pot of ink by it, and a bamboo brush. With 14 deft strokes of the brush, in less than a minute, the artist created the most beautiful ink rendering of a rooster that anyone had seen. The samurai was enraged: "This took you but a minute! For -this-, I waited five years, and paid you so much??" The samurai leapt from his seated position and swept off the artist's head with his katana. The samurai's minister then carried the body of the artist back to the artist's home, so the family of the artist might do as they wished with his body. When he arrived, inside he found the walls & floor covered with thousands of ink drawings of a rooster, each better than the last, but none quite as good as the final one he had produced in 60 seconds. Don't be so quick to judge work based on the time it takes. If it's good work, it's good work. (found it on an old news page of mine )
Posted by _Shoggot_ at 10:43pm on 17 Dec 2000