An architecture student asks her professor for advice. As they review her work together, he challenges her, “Is your design as good as the Chartres Cathedral?”
The student grimaces in confusion, looks out the window, and responds earnestly, “Of course not, I could never do that.” A few seconds pass, and she glances at the professor’s light frown.
“That standard must be our standard,” the professor says. “If you are going to be a builder, no other standard is worthwhile. That is what I expect of myself in my own buildings, and it is what I expect of my students.”
The student experiences shock. Of course her professor would set out to make such audacious work; but it’s the first time that she has heard someone else expecting her to make work that could be recognized alongside a classic. The people she admired were her heroes, but she now also realized they were her friendly rivals. She realizes she has the right to ask this of herself—and the right to set out to make great work. The right to deserve more, and to earn it.
She didn’t know it yet, but it would be the most important advice of her career—maybe even her life.
Inspired by Christopher Alexander’s foreword for Patterns of Software (via Zhengdong Wang).