Steal Like An Artist

  • Author: Austin Kleon
  • Tags: [[Books]]
  • Summary: https://aengusmcmillin.com/steal-like-an-artist
  • Steal Like An Artist
    • All the best artists find the ideas worth stealing.
    • No ideas are fully unique, everything is built on what comes before
    • Combining ideas creates more than the sum of its parts
    • Look for good quality inputs into your life. Don't let garbage in.
    • Don't just look at your favorite people, also look at their favorite people
    • Keep educating yourself, be curious about the world and draw from it
    • Keep a swipe file to store the best ideas you find. Capture quotes, designs, colors, and anything else worth stealing.
  • Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started
    • You have to just start and find yourself as you go
    • Copy people you respect, try to emulate their work
    • Don't copy from a single individual, copy from many. This amalgamation of ideas will turn into your own unique voice.
  • Write The Book You Want To Read
    • Don't just write about what you know, write about what you like
    • Try to write a sequel to all your favorites combined into one
    • Think about what your favorite people might have created if they worked together, and try to make that thing
  • Use Your Hands
    • It is hard to unlock creative ideas solely in front of the computer
    • Setup a physical workstation for yourself. Use paper and scissors and tape and put the ideas together in visual ways.
    • Once the idea is set, move back to the computer to bring it to life
    • (How could I do this with programming? Maybe more paper prototyping? Designing system architectures and schemas on paper first?)
  • Side Projects And Hobbies Are Important
    • Side projects allow for productive procrastination. Have projects you can switch between so that when you get bored of one you have a productive way to spent your time anyway
    • Take time to be bored, mess around, wander. It will lead to great insights.
    • Don't throw away interests. Pursue a variety of different things as hobbies or more. You won't know how it all connected together until you look back.
  • The Secret: Do Good Work And Share It With People
    • College makes us feel like people care what we think, and that illusion is shattered the moment we enter the real world
    • "Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts. Use it"
    • Not-so-secret formula to being known: Do good work and share it with people
    • Practice and keeping working until you can do good work
    • Put things on the internet to share it
    • Get interested in things and share those interests, don't worry about keeping secrets, just share
    • Use the internet to develop ideas and evolve your process, keep publishing and improving, and allow your audience to hold you accountable
  • Geography Is No Longer Our Master
    • We can find mentors anywhere in the world now
    • Build a community online, you aren't constrained to your location
    • Build a world around you that you enjoy
    • Find solitude for yourself. Bring a book, a notebook, and pen, and find a place to sit, think, and give yourself a bit of space and a bit of time
    • Sometimes you do need to leave home. You need to feel uncomfortable and train yourself to see the world differently.
    • Find a place with bad weather. It will force you to stay inside and work.
    • "You have to find a place that feeds you--creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally."
  • Be Nice. (The World Is A Small Town)
    • Make friends on the internet, don't be mean, be nice instead
    • Spend time around people smarter than you. The people you follow should inspire you to be better.
    • "If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, find a new room"
    • Get angry as inspiration, but don't get in fights, instead channel that anger into getting shit done
    • "Complain about the way other people make software by making software" - Andre Torrez
    • Write public fan letters. Show appreciation for someone's work without doing it in a way that requires them to respond.
    • Don't look for external validation, it probably won't come, just keep busy doing work you want to do
    • Keep a [[praise file]]. Don't overuse it, but take advantage of when your work is noticed and people appreciate you, keep those things as a reminder for when times are tough
  • Be Boring. (It's The Only Way To Get Work Done)
    • Take care of yourself. You need energy to be creative, so keep yourself healthy enough to have energy, and don't waste it being stupid.
    • Try to be good with money. Learn about it, set a budget, avoid debt.
    • Keep the day job. It will give you a routine, financial stability, and people around you to learn from.
    • A job takes away your time, but giving you a routine is really valuable. Take advantage of that, and use that routine to keep doing your work every single day.
    • Get a calendar and use it to stay on track. [[Don't Break The Chain]]
    • Keep a logbook of what you do every day. Don't worry about making it a journal of thoughts and feelings, just record where you go to lunch, the things you work on, and who you may have met up with.
    • Find the right person to marry. Find someone to keep you grounded and that improves and appreciates your life as a chaotic creative.
  • Creativity Is Subtraction
    • Place constraints on yourself to get past paralysis of choice.
    • For creative work, limitations = freedom
    • The things left out of a piece of work can be what gives it character.
    • "In the end, creativity isn't just the things we put in, it's the things we choose to leave out"
  • Next Steps
    • Take a walk
    • Start your swipe file
    • Go to the library
    • Buy a notebook and use it
    • Get a calendar
    • Start a logbook
    • Give a copy of the book away
    • Start a blog
    • Take a nap
  • Book Recommendations
    • What It Is - Lynda Barry
    • Ignore Everything - Hugh Macleod
    • Rework - Jason Fried, DHH
    • The Gift - Lewis Hyde
    • The Ecstasy of Influence - Jonathan Lethem
    • Reality Hunger - David Shields
    • Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud
    • [[Bird by Bird]] - Anne Lamott
    • Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
    • Make a World - Ed Emberly

Linked References