Ode to Curmudgeons

Over Thanksgiving I was in Arizona and went to Frank Lloyd Wright's summer home/academy Taliesin West. It was pretty incredible--I think I liked the Cabaret Theatre the best. What we learned is that Wright was not a nice man. The students at his academy were referred to as apprentices and they pretty much spent their time at Wright's beck-and-call. All of the natural stone, for instance, which is used everywhere, was hauled down from the mountains by the apprentices. Wright was bad at being married and bad at his finances, "If you pay for luxuries everything else will take care of itself," and overall kind of a character--which is charming in a way.
What I wanted to say though is that he was a genius because he was a curmudgeon. Exhibit a: you know those lighted aisles in movie theaters? You know who invented those? FLW. He hated ushers and their flashlights so he invented lighting to get around it. He did other things too, I think most of his career was based on being crotchety, but don't remember. But I think a lot of genius comes from not liking things the way that they are and putting up a stink and changing them.