First, by way of background, I participated in a Houzz ideabook discussion centered around some unusual elements of a project I had recently completed. The design was provocative and elicited many comments, some kind and some not. As much as I appreciate a compliment, I was most absorbed by the comments that began, "If this were my house, I would have … " Or, "If it were me, I’d have done … " This unearthed a common stereotype of an architect’s work: that we are arrogant egomaniacs who bully clients into building our own visions. I will consent that those architects do indeed exist (that sentence may have just cost me any future American Institute of Architects membership), and I often have to fight back this stereotype early on in my client relationships. But instead of discussing stereotypes, let’s discuss what architecture should be. My response to these comments? Of course. Of course it would be different. Of course it would reflect you.If I were a musician, and person A from a small town in Michigan hired me to write a piece of music that was a celebration of her life, that piece of music would be significantly different than a piece of music written to celebrate the life of person B, who lives in Los Angeles. That is how it should be, and architecture is simply frozen music (or so said Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).