The work that outlasts the one who made it is one of the more concrete forms of legacy available — but it carries a danger that the ego exploits: the conflation of excellent work with personal immortality. The work that matters does so because of what it gives the world, not because it preserves the maker. The person who can release their work to its own life, without needing to control what it becomes, has understood something important.
Each step builds on the last.