I teared up the first time I walked into the Sistine Chapel. Of course, I’d seen pictures of it online, but seeing the real thing was something else. There was something about the way the frescoes were painted, the sheer scale of it, and how everything worked together that was at once overwhelming and beautiful. People who say that “beauty is subjective” probably haven’t seen the Sistine Chapel in real life. There’s a reason why its been celebrated for hundreds of years. We often underestimate the role of beauty in our work. Michelangelo transformed paint and plaster into a work that could inspire wonder, move hearts and simply express what quality looks like. It’s easy to see beauty in domains like art, poetry, music, and even sports. For example, the New York Times described watching Roger Federer play as a “religious experience“:

“Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime

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