Thin Lines

I always find it interesting when there's a thin line separating two different qualities.  Perfect Example: Genius vs. insanity.  I think almost all genius ideas are insane ideas until they're recognized by others as having value.  You could have the most ingenious idea of all time, but if you're unable to make anybody else understand it then you're probably going to be written off as insane.  In other words geniuses are insane people who are able to make their insane ideas understood.

Another one is confidence vs. arrogance.  They're kind of similar qualities but arrogance is kind of the twisted evil sibling of confidence.  I think confidence is generally a good quality.  It's good to be confident in yourself and in the abilities of others.  No matter if you're going to a brain surgeon or if you want your dishwasher repaired you want the person you go to to be confident.  Arrogance, on the other hand is annoying.  I generally enjoy seeing arrogant people fail and get taken down a notch.  So what's the difference exactly?  I think confidence is quiet and selfless whereas arrogance is loud and selfish.  A confident professional makes their work the focus of attention while an arrogant professional makes themselves the focus of attention.

It's just interesting how little degrees of difference can have largely different results.  Even typos.  Are you talking about docks or dicks, because those are pretty different things.