Envy is often seen as a negative emotion. But I think at its root, it’s good. Envy gnaws at us from the inside out. Envy tells us that somebody else has something we want.

When that thing we want is a bigger house or a faster car, envy has no upside. But when that thing we want is to do better work, then envy can motivate us to improve.

I’ve been envious of other people’s work many times. I’ve been envious of ads, books, movies, poems, photographs, art – you name it. I’ve come away wishing that I had created the thing I envy. A bolt of envy knocks me off my feet every time.

Envy makes me want to achieve more, do better, think more creatively, to be less literal, to be more surprising, more unexpected, be smarter, on and on. In the movie “As Good As It Gets,” Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt that she makes him “want to be a better man.” I guess in a way, that’s what envy does for me.