Steal Like An Artist

 

Steal Like an Artist by Austin kleon

10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.

1.1. How to look artist (like an artist)

Q(I).1 How do artists create things?

E.1 Every artist steals from another artist as their source of inspiration. The first thing is to know what you want and know the people that are doing what you want to do. Next, know something worth stealing. There is nothing like bad or good. Capture any ideas that resonate with you.

E.2 Most of the problems, challenges and struggles we face today have been there over the years and many great men have solved it already. Your work is to find the idea, if you didn't see it today, you may find it  tomorrow, next month or even next year.

Example 

I have started using the idea recently and am really appreciating it gradually. When I watch YouTube I keep note of what resonates with me. I will try to write the note in my own words.

Qu 

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal."- pablo Picasso

"The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” —David Bowie 

1.2 nothing is original- 

Q.1.1 How to fix the phobia of original content?

E.1 All artists understand that creativity starts from something that exists. Nobody has the power to create something from nothing to something. The early inventors were studying the physical properties and characteristics of natural things. All artwork was built on what came before. Airplanes were designed by copying and imitating the bird,  ships were designed by copying fish and so on.

Creativity started from one situation or another in the past. Everything in life starts from something. Only God has the  power to create something out of nothing Genesis 1:1

When people say something is original they don't know the reference. It is written in the Bible nothing is hidden under the sun ecclesiastes 1:9. 

Don't get depressed nor worry  if they say your content is not original. Jonathan Lethem  said that when people call something “original,” nine out of ten times they just don’t know the references or the original sources involved.

" What is original? Undetected plagiarism"  - William raph inge

1.3 The genealogy of ideas.

Q1.3 How  ideas are made up?

E1.3 Every idea is a mashup or a remix of an old idea.  

Examples: if you draw two horizontal lines  very close to each other, you will find another line  between the two lines.  

  We have the genes of both our mother and father. We are the generic of our parents and ancestors.

1.4 Garbage in,  garbage out.

I 1.4  Give your attention to what you love

E 1.4 An artist is a collector, he collects ideas that he loves,  he collects selectively, when he keeps piling up good  ideas in the long run it will influence his thinking and his doings.

As Epictetus said "You become what you give your attention to."

Austin Kleon added "You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with. My mom used to say to me, “Garbage in, garbage out.” It used to drive me nuts. But now I know what she meant. Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by."

" steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.” —Jim Jarmusch 

1.5 climb your family tree

Q1.5 How do you build your own house or how can you start your artistic journey?

E1.5 Find three - twenty people in any field that you love. It can be musicians, novelists or content creators. Study them and their art work. Repeat it as much as you can. Follow their part, be an apprentice. The importance of being an apprentice is you can choose what you want to learn from them, until you find your beating. Learn how to construct buildings Then start building your own house. 

Example

My friend all addal started his blog after he listened to a podcast by derik Stevens and Tim Ferres in 2016. He added YouTube podcasts, online courses plus other stuff on the side as a medical student, and today he has built multiple streams of income.

1.6  school yourself 

Q1.6 Educate yourself. 

School is one thing, education is another thing. They don't always overlap. You have to be curious about the world you are living in. Take reference of things you come across. 

Google everything, search everything in Google. Google your dreams: Google your problems. Google your questions. It may give the answer or lead you to possible questions.

Buy books either hard or soft copy, read books, write books and  learn new things. "Read bibliographies. It’s not the book you start with, it’s the book that book leads you to". Austin kleon."Whether I went to school or not, I would always study.” —RZA 

1.7 save your thefts for later

Q1.7 save your idea for later.

Q1.7 Move around with a pen and paper or digital system, take note of events, conversation, take pictures of anything that resonates, put it on your swipe file. When you need inspiration, open up your swipe file.

“It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected.”—Mark Twain

2.0 Don’t Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Get Started.

I 2.0  Take a baby step today.

The only way we learn how to walk is by walking and falling over. When we fall over, we learn from our mistakes and become better. Don't wait until you know before you start doing something. 

`If I’d waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started “being creative,'' well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are." Austin kloen 

2.2  you're ready. Making stuff.

I 2.2 feeling you are not good enough is normal.

Most educated people are always scared to start. They feel that they are not good enough. It is called “impostor syndrome”. This is the : inability of people to internalize their accomplishments. Ask anybody doing creative stuff if they know where the good stuff comes from, they will say they don't know. They just do their job everyday.

2.3 fake it till you make it. 

I 2.3 just do it custom will make it easy.

I 2.3 Act as if you already know it.

See creative as a drama where you are assigned different roles to  act. You need to keep faking it until you become good with it.  “1.Pretend to be something you’re not until you are—fake it until you’re successful, until  everybody sees you the way you want them to; or 2.Pretend to be making something until you actually make something.”

2.4  start coping

I 2.4   Copy what you love.

We were not born with a style of speaking or voice. We started by copying from others. We practice what others are doing and try to pass people's work as our own. "Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself.”Yohji Yamamoto." "We learn to write by copying down the alphabet. Musicians learn to play by practicing scales. Painters learn to paint by reproducing masterpieces." Austin kleon 

2.5 imitation is not flattery 

l 2.5 start coping, then emulate your mentor.

E 2.5  We start by imitating or copying our hero then we move to our own test and  emulate their work. “We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that’s how you will find your voice. And that’s how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you.” Francis Ford Coppola. O’Brien’s words, “It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. "Thank goodness.  have stolen all of these moves from all these great players. I just try to do them proud, the guys who came before, because I learned  so much from them. It’s all in the  name of the game. It’s a lot bigger than me.”- kobe bryant

3.0 Write the Book You Want to Read. 

3.1 Write the book you like.

I 3.1 Do the thing you like.

The author said something that really resonated with me. He said when he was ten years old he watched Jurassic park  part 1. He picked the character in the movie and wrote part 2 of the movie. Write the book you want to read. Act  the movie you want to  watch. Don't write what you know but what you like. Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use. Do the work you want to see done.

4.0 Use Your Hands.

I 4.0 Use your hands to draft ideas.

E4.0 Create two workspaces, Analogue and digital. Start first with analog. Buy paper, pen, pencil and other writing materials. Scribble your ideas or plan your work. Then cut and paste on the wall. Study the patterns that will form. Then move to your digital system to execute the plan. use both analog and digital in your work.

"We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops.”—John Cleese

5.0 Side Projects and Hobbies Are Important.

Q 5.0 What are your hobbies or side projects?

We all have hobbies, the stuff we love to do.

We have the stuff we were just doing (side project). Those stuff we thought we were just doing, it really pays off. It is good to have a lot of projects going at once. When one project sucks or you become drained mentally you can flip to another project and return back later. Practice productive procrastination.

“The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” —Jessica Hische

5.1 Don't throw any of yourself away.

I 5.1 keep your passion and hobbies.

If you have different hobbies and passions. Don't discard or choose anyone.  Keep all your passion. Tomlinson suggests that if you love different things, you just keep spending time with them. “Let them talk to each other. Something will begin to happen.”

Don’t worry about unity, what unifies your work is the fact that you made it. One day, you’ll look back and it will all make sense.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.” —Steve Jobs 

6.0 The Secret: Do Good Work and Share It with People. 

6.1 in the beginning obscurity is good.

I 6.1  focus on your work.

Everyone is busy with their work. Back in school, lecturers were paid to listen to you and your  course mate also paid fees to listen to you. But after school, it seems that no one cares to pay attention again. As the writer Steven Pressfield says, “It’s not that people are mean or cruel, they’re just busy.”

You have to be good at what you are doing for people to remember you. You need to love and have fun with your work. See what you are doing as an experiment, observe and do the necessary adjustment. Do things for fun. Don't worry Things will gradually unfold for you. 

6.2 The not so secret formula

I 6.2 The secret formula  

Online is now easy and many people  are breaking out.  Do a good job and share it with people, at the beginning it may sucks but keep going and get better at what you're doing.  There is no shortcut for success. First Step  1. Wonder at something. 2. share with people to wonder with you and share their thoughts. Try to move slightly for what people are wondering. share your passion and recommend books that are interesting. Review your secret of getting things done, share your insight. 

Show your process, invite people, and you will learn more. “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 

7.0 Geography Is No Longer Our Master.

7.1 build your own world 

I 7.1 Do things without excuse

Your location should not be an excuse. Use your phone and connect to people that do things you love online. Stay alone, read books, enjoy solitude and captivity. As Paulo Coelho says “blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not. afraid of their own company, who are not always. desperately looking for something to do, something to. amuse themselves with, something to judge”.

7.3 leave home 

I 7.3 leave your comfort zone.

Leave your comfort zone, leave your home. When you are so comfortable it makes you less productive. Places are important when you leave, you tend to be reset and your brain will start tracking back some open loop.

8.0 Be Nice. (The World Is a Small Town) 

8.1 make friends, ignore your enemy.

I 8.1 Say nice things about people.

E 8.1 Know the reason why you are online. If you want to make friends online, say nice things about the people who want to be your friend.

“There’s only one rule I know of: You’ve got to be kind.” —Kurt Vonnegut 

8.2 stand next to talent 

I 8.2 find people who are ahead of you in your quest.

E 8.2 In this digital era, find people that are smarter than you, follow the people who are doing what you like. Pay attention to what they are doing. Any place you find yourself, look for people who are smarter than you.  Like charges tend to attract each other. Remember that iron sharpens iron. You’re going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with. 

8.3 write fan letter 

I 8.3 give credit to the work you love.

Write a blog post about your hero's work or someone you love there work. link it to their website. Or answer a question and give credit to their work. As my friend Hugh MacLeod says, “The best way to get approval is to not need it.” The idea here is not to expect approval. Do it for the love of your hero. 

8.4 Validation is for parking 

I 8.4 you don't need anybody's approval.

E 8.4 Don't expect validation. The truth is that your family, friends and people may misinterpret, misunderstood and even discourage you from what you are doing. The key is to be focused, keep busy doing what you love.You don't need anybody's approval, do your thing, and Forget about things beyond your control.

 

8.5 keep a praise file 

I 8.5 learn from criticism

As you do your work, there will be dark and bright days. People may praise, criticize, condemn or even hate your work. Keep a praise file for when you are down. When you need energy to push ahead go through your praise file. Evaluate every critism and look for how to improve.

 

9.0 Take care of yourself 

Q 9.0 What is the importance of self care?

Q 9.0 Take care of your body

E9.4.1 It takes a lot of energy to be creative, you need to conserve your energy, and channel it towards your goals. Pay attention to the things you do. Direct the energy you use for time wasting activities to your creative work eg  stop making arguments with people, or trying to convince people to believe in your perspective, or busy doing nothing, or just scrolling social media. and etc. Remember health is your wealth. Eat healthy organic food, exercise your body, take enough water and get plenty of sleep.

9.1 Stay out of debt 

I 9.1 control finance

Hold on, on what you have, say no to consuming culture. Control your expenses, acquire the necessary skills to increase your finances. Learn different ways to make money, stop thinking about money instead render the necessary value that we give it.  Take savings as earning, "it’s not the money you make, it’s the money you hold on to.”- Austin kleon. Make a monthly budget and leave within your means. 

Learn skills, educate yourself with little money or no money. You can find different skills on the Internet for almost free of change. A Good example is google digital skill.

9.2 keep you day job 

I 9.2 you need day job 

E9.3 A day job gives you money to take care of your bills, support you, and provide food on your table. With your day job you make a living.

In order to get your side project going. 

It really takes a lot of time, if you are lucky to earn from your side project or hustle, you will make a fortune. Your day  job takes care of your basic needs, and it gives you routine.  Even though work really takes a lot of our time. We can steal ideas from our day job to our side project.

Example: Austin worked in the library, he learnt  how to do research, his Web design job taught him how to build websites, and his copywriting job taught him how to sell things with words.

9.3 get yourself a calendar 

Q 9.3 -  how to be consistent with your side project.

Figure out what you want to do, Do the work every day, no matter what. No holidays, no sick days. Don’t stop. you’ll probably find a flow state 

Making your side project as a career or make fortune  requires a lot of small and consistent effort for a long time. The impact of compound interest and making progress daily is enormous.eg  To write a book takes time, if you write a page one a day for 365 days it will amass to a book or a novel. You need  a calendar to plan your day. Seinfeld suggested to create a plan on your calendar and cross it with x when you are done with your daily task, keep on and do not break the chain nor miss any day it will accumulate to something big.

9.4 keep a logbook 

I 9.4 use a logbook to track your progress 

E 9.4

Logbook will be a system that tracks what you have done in the past. It is not detailed like your journal or diary. It's like a score sheet that tracks your efforts on your project. You can evaluate your work on the weekend. keeping track of how far your ship has sailed, 

"If you ask yourself ‘What’s the best thing that happened today?’ it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. If you ask yourself ‘What happened today?’ it’s very likely that you’re going to remember the worst thing, because you’ve had to deal with it—you’ve had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that’s what you’re going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it’s going to be some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad.” —Nicholson Baker.

9.5 Marry well.

I 9.5 who you need to marry 

E 9.5 Who you marry is very important because it will contribute to your success. 

Marry your friends that know, love and understand you. Marry a person that will love to contribute to your ideas, project and even manage your schedule.

Remember it is not always a bed of roses. Sometimes you will be a cook, a cleaner, a motivational speaker, and guidance, " A good partner keeps you grounded." Austin kleon

10.0 Creativity Is Subtraction 

I 10.0 creative is what we choose to add or subtract.

I 10.0 Choose what you leave out 

We are living in a world of abundance and information overload. The ability to choose what to leave out and add makes art work interesting. It's the same for human beings: who makes us interesting is what we experience and what we did not experience. Your ability to know the right thing to add and subtract may make you good artists.

"creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out. 

Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the money in the world, all the colors in the palette, anything you want—that just kills creativity.” —Jack White

Choose wisely. And have fun." Austin kleon.

Q 10.1 How to get over creative block 

E10.1 places some constraints on yourself to do things in your free time or downtime. It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom. outline your article or draft your next script for  your video during your downtime.