I remember once getting an English prof who graded so easy that I wrote a bullshit paper on how HHGTTG was "apocalyptic" and he gave me an 'A-" on it. No research, no editing. Just churned it out.

So I ended up wasting a good portion of my adult life trying to learn "a trade" as they say. Why? Because some English professor in charge of a two-bit community college told me I'd never make it as a writer without having read any of my writing, that I should learn something a bit more "technical." So I chose…