I never advocated practicing the same thing every day, or for years. Structured practice is a necessity for the mechanical aspect of guitar - picking / legato / whatever. Music theory is perhaps not a necessity, but it is very useful. The important message I was trying to get across is that you should practice every day if possible, and your practice should cover ground. Alot of players just practice alternate picking for hours and wonder why all they can do is play spider patterns at 700bpm... :rolleyes:. It needs to be balanced.

Creating your own stumbling blocks can actually be positive...

Creativity cannot be taught, but as with anything else, if you work on it you can develop. Hendrix / Page must have spent some time in a practice regime to be able to play a guitar... if you can't make your fingers do what you can hear in your head, how are you going to get that music out?