I've always tried to look out for the possibility of new creative/collaborative situations where I saw the opportunity, the underlying idea being that if one can manage to produce some genuinely good work once in awhile, it will somehow balance out the uninspiring bullshit one has to put up with the other 98% of the time. It's a sad moment when your first thought of a potentially exciting collaborative circumstance is immediately quashed by the realization that the person you have in mind has, after many years, finally managed to piss you off to the degree that even your relentlessly idealistic desire to make something good can't overpower the weight of history any longer. It's a threshold I never thought anyone could really make me cross.
I know this isn't exactly a news flash, but it's true-
Humans are poorly designed.