A musician’s standard for a successful piece

2019/02/20

If the production pleases everyone, then consider it a total failure. If, on the other hand, everyonecriticizes your work, then perhaps theres something worthwhile in it. Real success comes when peopleargue about your work, when half the audience is in raptures and the other half is ready to tear you apart.
—-Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich p82

Perhaps the greatest mathematicians also think in this way?