The article rings very true. Both the on-topic stuff about avoiding writing when we don't feel you'll produce something of quality and the whole off-topic thing about top-of-the-class students not failing enough as kids to form a strong personality.

Let's face it, we all want the glory and "critical acclaim" of writing something good, so when you feel like you will produce only something mediocre or actually bad, you don't feel like writing at all. It's like having a brilliant startup idea and not executing on it because you don't want to dirty up you beautiful imaginary world of success with the harshness of reality and people not caring about your idea.

But in French they say "l'appetit vient en mangeant" (the desire to eat comes while eating) so procrastinating is not the answer. Write one true sentence. Here I am writing this comment instead of going back to my book and writing the intro paragraph to Chapter 6.... Okay, that's it I'm going.

One last thing: if you're ever stuck with writer's block, try recording yourself speak and then transcribing what you wrote. It works great for me when I'm tired. I could me mentally too tired to type, but I can speak a coherent sentence that flows nicely.