After every writerly milestone, it's like some kind of mass email goes out, and I almost immediately start associating with people who're one step ahead of me.

I don't really know why this is (or even if it's just peculiar to me), but it's happened again and again. After I started writing and submitting seriously, I went to Clarion and met people who were super focused and dedicated writers. After I started selling stories, I joined the Codex workshop and became friends with people who're getting reprinted and…