“Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon is a refreshing and insightful book that challenges conventional notions of creativity and encourages readers to embrace inspiration, embrace their influences, and unlock their unique creative potential. In this book, Kleon shares a set of principles and strategies that inspire creative thinking and help individuals unleash their creative spirit. Here are my 5 favourite lessons from this book:
Lesson1: START COPYING
Start copying what you love.
Yohji Yamamoto
Copy Copy Copy Copy
At the end of copy, you will find your self
Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying. Copying is different than plagiarism wherein one tries to pass someone else’s work off as their own. Copying is about reverse engineering.
A wonderful flaw about human beings is that we are incapable of making perfect copies. Our failure to copy our heroes is where we discover where our own thing lives. That is how we evolve.
So: Copy your Heroes…
Lesson 2: SAVE UR THEFTS 4 LATER!
Carry a Notebook & a Pen with you wherever you go. Jot down your thoughts and observations.
Copy your favorite passages out of books.
Keep a SWIPE FILE– can be digital or notebook-> See something worth stealing? Put it in the swipe file.
Need a lil inspiration???
OPEN UP THE SWIPE FILE
You have to be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up, chase down every reference. Google everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. You’ll either find the answers or you’ll come up with a better question.
Lesson 3: MAKE THINGS, KNOW THYSELF
Its in the act of making things and doing out work that we figure out who we are.
You might be scared to start. Thats natural. Its called IMPOSTER SYNDROME.
Guess What?
Ask anybody doing truly creative work and they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day!
Lesson 4: 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
Take time to be bored. Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. If you are out of ideas, do the dishes. Take a really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can
Lesson 5: BE BORING (It’s the Only Way to Get Work Done)
- Keep your Day Job
- A day job gives you money, a connection to the world, and a routine.
- A day job puts you in the path of other human beings. Learn from them, steal from them.
- The worst thing a day job does is take time away from you, but it makes up for that by giving you a daily routine in which you can schedule a regular time for your creative pursuits. Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time. Inertia is the death of creativity. You have to stay in the groove. When you get out of the groove, you start to dread the work, because you know it’s going to suck for a while—it’s going to suck until you get back into the flow.
- The solution is really simple: Figure out what time you can carve out, what time you can steal, and stick to your routine. Do the work every day, no matter what.
- Trick is to find a day job that pays decently, doesn’t make you want to vomit, and leaves you with enough energy to make things in your spare time.
- Get a calendar. Fill the boxes. Don’t break the chain
- A calendar helps you plan work,gives you concrete goals, and keeps you on track.
- Get a Wall Calendar that shows you the whole year. Then, you break your work into daily chunks. Each day when you are finished with your work, make a big fat X in the days box.
- Everyday, instead of just getting work done, your goal is to just fill a box. After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing the chain, especially when you get few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.
- Keep a LogBook: A logbook isn’t necessarily a diary or a journal, it’s could be a. little book in which you list the things you do every day. What project you worked on, where you went to lunch, what movie you saw.
- The small details will help you remember the big details.
Notable Quotes from the book:
Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.
Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.
My favourite quotation from the Book:
Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Filmmaker John Waters has said, Nothing is more important than an unread library.
Do check out the following Ted Talk by the Author of this book
Read the complete book for more such practical ideas and new perspectives on creativity. Check out the book here.
To get the free ebook of this wonderful book, you can drop your request in the comment section.
Stay blessed and Happy Reading!
