Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative Paperback – February 28, 2012

I am not a creative person. I want to be. I think like most people I want to create something. I want to write something. Create something. While searching for something new in the books section of Amazon.com I hit on this title. I knew nothing about Austin Kleon. I am not a poetry fan so I did not know about the Newspaper Blackout book. I actually judged this book by it's cover (and the description to be honest). I read it in an hour (you can too - it is a short book). Then I read it again much more slowly and with a highlighter. Most of what he writes about may be trite to those "in the know" but for me this book said I could go into the world, find something I love and tweak it bit to make it mine. And in doing that I could show the creator that his work inspired me to create something. This book also told me that I already possessed the tools to be creative. Since I know that I like Kleon suggest that I study why I like it. Find out what makes it work for me and then use that as a jumping off point. But even these words do not convey accurately enough how inspired I was - I read it again - I added his blog and tumblr feeds to my daily readings - I follow him on twitter and bought some books he recommended. Finally - rather than sending him an email telling him how wonderful this book is - I am following his advice and putting those same thoughts in a review. A small book awakened a bit of passion for being creative. Not a small feat. A small book but a big heart. Hope all these words add up to this - I love this book.

Austin Kleon writes, “All advice in autobiographical… This book is me talking to a previous version of myself… These ideas apply to anyone who’s trying to inject some creativity into their life and their work. (That should describe all of us.)” The book is thoughtfully written and designed in a creative six-inch by six-inch format.

The idea behind stealing like an artist is that “nothing is completely original… All creative work builds on what came before... If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.”

“We learn by copying. We’re talking about practice here, not plagiarism—plagiarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own. Copying is about reverse engineering… Remember: Even The Beatles started as a cover band.”

“You are the sum of your influences… Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by… Seeing yourself as part of a creative lineage will help you feel less alone as you start making your own stuff… You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes… That’s what you really want—to internalize their way of looking at the world… It is the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.”

“You have to be curious about the world in which you live… Always be reading…. Don’t worry about doing research. Just search.”

“You’re only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with… If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.”

“The manifesto is this: 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.”

The author urges readers to “step away from the screen… You need to find a way to bring your body into your work… If we strum a guitar, or shuffle sticky notes around a conference table, or start kneading clay, the motion kickstarts our brain into thinking… The computer is really good for editing your ideas… but it’s not really good for generating ideas. There are too many opportunities to hit the delete key.”

Kleon points out the value of side projects and hobbies in sparking creativity. “By side projects I mean the stuff that you thought was just messing around. Stuff that’s just play. That’s actually the good stuff. That’s when the magic happens… I think it’s good to have a lot of projects going on at once so you can bounce between them. When you get sick of one project, move over to another… Practice productive procrastination.” The author quotes playwright Steven Tomlinson about having diverse interests: “Let them talk to each other. Something will begin to happen.”

“Creativity is subtraction.” The answer to information overload is to “figure out what to leave out” so you can focus on what’s most important to you. “It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom… Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time.”

Kleon touches on the theme of his second book, Show Your Work. “If there was a secret formula for becoming known, I would give it to you. But there’s only one not-so-secret formula that I know: Do good work and share it with people. It’s a two-step process… Not everyone will get it… So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored—the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.” That said, the author says to, “enjoy your obscurity while it lasts… There’s no pressure when you’re unknown. You can do what you want. Experiment. Do things just for the fun of it. When you’re unknown, there’s nothing to distract your form getting better.”

On a final note, Kleon writes, “Your mileage may vary… Feel free to take what you can use and leave the rest.”

Although a small format book with less than 150 pages of content and lots of white and blank space, Steal Like an Artist punches way above its weight. I love this book because it shatters the myth that good ideas just pop into your head; Its proposition is that anybody can be creative. As Thomas Edison said, genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Austin Kleon, an artist and writer, guides the reader skillfully through the creative process with the premise that by “stealing” other people’s work you can get inspiration and generate your own ideas. He doesn’t mean literally steal, like in actually ripping people off or plagiarizing; more so, he outlines a road-map to allow you to analyze what inspires you as a way to generate ideas of your own, in my case, an idea to start a business. It is an age old idea, but worthy of a refresher course. As Kleon says in the book “It’s right there in the Bible – Ecclesiastes 1:9, there is nothing new under the sun.” I also love a section of the book titled: “Creativity is subtraction.” It tells the story of how Theodor Geisel wrote Green Eggs and Ham. After he had written The Cat in the Hat with only 236 different words his publisher challenged him to write his next book using only fifty. The result was the children’s classic Green Eggs and Ham. Brevity and conciseness is something I strive for as I write, although it is difficult to achieve. Think about how being concise forces you to find the real essence of what you are saying by cutting out all the crap: John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address was only 1,364 words; the Gettysburg Addresses 272. Less is often more and it is a useful exercise to try to describe your business or idea in one concise sentence.