Book Review— Thought-Provoking Sentences From ‘Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things No One Told You About Being Creative’ by Austin Kleon
Loaded with insights and managing creative expectations the right way, ‘Steal Like An Artist’ is more about self-discovery than the business of art.
In the modern world, it is impossible to experience everything. There’s too much. It is also highly like that if you learned only from your mistakes, then you are repeating mistakes made before. Learning is important. Sharing experience is important. Stealing lessons is important. Austin Kleon, while naming the book, ‘Steal Like An Artist’, clearly holds ‘artist’ as the gold standard for thieves.
I completely agree.
These 37 simple lessons hit hard and true, at least to me. Most of these are in sequential order, and in a few cases, I’ve left a few thoughts of my own. (All text not italicized are sentences/phrases from the book. The italicized bit — my thoughts on the matter/ways I might’ve considered phrasing it in an effort to get the intent across)
If you are an artist, or a “creative type”, who’s feeling that rut in your work, I highly recommend the book. After reading it, I realized a few of these principles are definitely sentences more people should read. In that effort, I’ve put together this shortlist.
Take what you will learn from what makes sense to you. Have the will to grow. That said, here we go:
- Read Deeply. Stay Open. Continue to wonder. Google.
- Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.
Don’t while away time until you know you are. Start already. Waiting implies an action. The core issue here is inaction, a.k.a wasting time.
3. Write the book you want to read
4. “Write what you know”. This advice always leads to terrible stories where nothing interesting happens.
As a writer, this makes the most sense. I firmly believe in trying out new styles, new ideas and frankly, anything new. If I already know it, so do others … what’s fun about that?
5. Use your hands.
6. Side projects and hobbies are important.
Oh hell yes. Ever since I had more time because I quit my job and started freelancing, I’ve had more time for projects and hobbies — both of which have severely contributed to my positive mental health.
7. “The work you do while you procastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life” — Jessica Hische
8. I think its good to have a lot of projects going at once so you can bounce between them. When you get sick of one project, move over to another, and when you’re sick of that, move back to the project of your life. Practice productive procrastination.
This is much harder to do that it seems. Practicing self-control can be a challenge, so is applying Parkinson’s Law in Your Daily Life. But hey, nothing comes easy. Practice.
9. Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.
10. If you have two or three real passions, don’t feel like you have to pick and choose between them. Don’t discard. Keep all your passions in your life.
I think more of us need to hear this than we care to admit.
11. [On a Poster] Attention! Do not leave your longing unattended.
12. A hobby is something creative that’s just for you.
13. The secret — Do good work and share it with people.
14. Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.
15. When you open up your process & invite people in, you learn.
16. “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” — Howard Aiken
17. Leave home.
Don’t borrow survival — learn it yourself. Staying outside home teaches one a lot of things. This also means don’t borrow money, beg for help, or be in your own corner.
18. Make friends. Ignore enemies.
This simple sentence is often forgotten in the digital world and takes the shape of — Make enemies, ignore friends.
19. Quit picking fights and go make something.
20. Write public fan letters.
21. The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return and that you get new work out of the appreciation.
This blog is an example.
22. Validation is for parking.
23. So get comfortable being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignore d— the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.
24. Be boring. It’s the only way to get work done.
25. It takes a lot of energy to be creative.
26. Most people I know hate to think about money. Do yourself a favour: learn about money as soon as you can.
This sentence screamed out to me from the book and forced me to think about what I do, the money I make, and how it all fits in. I also hired a CA to help me out. All because money can be confusing.
27. Put the time in.
28. Inertia is the death of creativity. You have to stay in the groove.
Relate with this sentiment? You should definitely check out ‘The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles’ by Steven Pressfield.
29. Creativity is subtraction.
30. Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The idea that you can do anything is absolutely terrifying.
This is great. But I’d like to explore the same sentiment from a different perspective. Instead of you doing anything, consider anything happening to you. The idea that anything can happen to you is equally terrifying. Try to prepare for it. Not by thinking, but by being in situations that require you to train your gut, your character, and your actions. You could start off with video games or board games.
31. There are definite dangers in thinking you can do everything.
32. Whittle down the stream so you can think.
33. Do with less.
34. [As a drawing] Originality is depth + breadth of resources.
35. [As a drawing] All art is about collaboration.
36. [As a drawing] Contain multitudes.
37. [As a drawing] Influence is active, not passive.
That’s for the list. I hope you found this list as thought-provoking as I did. Continue to grow. Continue to excel. First as an individual, then as a group, and finally as a species.
