Steal Like an Artist
“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” – This is the quote of Steve Jobs. But he may have misquoted it from “Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal” by Pablo Picasso who was rephrasing Igor Stravinsky.
But may the original one is T. S. Eliot’s dictum: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”
The origin of this quote itself is an example of great artists stealing.
Nothing is Original
“Everybody is inspired by somebody.”
Instead, chew on one thinker—writer, artist, activist, role model—you really love. Study everything there is to know about that person. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it’s time to start your own branch.
Go deeper than anybody else—that’s how you’ll get ahead.
Don’t wait until you are ready
“Fake it ’til you make it.”
First, you have to figure out who to copy. Who to copy is easy? You copy your heroes—the people you love, the people you’re inspired by, the people you want to be. Do not copy from only one hero… copy from all the heroes that you love.
Second, you have to figure out what to copy. Examine where you fall short. What’s in there that makes you different? That’s what you should amplify and transform into your own work.
Write the book you want to read
The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best—write the story you want to read.
Whenever you’re at a loss for what move to make next, just ask yourself, ‘What would make a better story?’
“You have to dress up for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing.” -Austin Kleon
Take time to wander
If you’re out of ideas –
- Take time to mess around.
- Get lost.
- Wander.
You never know where it’s going to lead you.
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.
Don’t worry about unity—what unifies your work is the fact that you made it.
“Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.” -Austin Kleon
Do good work and share
There’s only one not-so-secret formula that the author knows: Do good work and share it with people.
- Step 1: Wonder at something.
- Step 2: Invite others to wonder with you. You should wonder about the things nobody else is wondering about.
Be nice
…The World is a Small Town.
“There’s only one rule I know of: You’ve got to be kind.” —Kurt Vonnegut
The author recommends public fan letters. The Internet is really good for this. Write a blog post about someone’s work that you admire and link to their site. Make something and dedicate it to your hero. Answer a question they’ve asked, solve a problem for them, or improve their work and share it online.
Be boring
…It’s the Only Way to Get Work Done.
A day job puts you in the path of other human beings. 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.
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.
- Get a calendar. Fill the boxes. Don’t break the chain.
Creativity is subtraction
In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what’s really important to them.
“Creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out.”
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” -ANDRÉ GIDE
Go Analog for making creative work
Using analogue tools is very important for creatives. Working on computers doesn’t feel like we are actually doing something. This is because our body doesn’t come into work and we are just typing keys or clicking mouse buttons.
Take your body into work
There is a direct connection b/w our bodies and nerves. When we take our bodies into work and use analogue tools instead of our computers, our work quality will improve and the work will feel like fun.
Use Computer for editing and publishing
A computer is good for editing and publishing your ideas. But it’s not good for generating ideas. Computers tend to make us perfectionists because there is always an opportunity to press the delete key. On the computer, we start editing ideas before we have them.
A good example of stealing ideas is genetics
A good example is genetics. You have a mother and you have a father. You possess features from both of them, but the sum of you is bigger than their parts. You’re a remix of your mom and dad and all of your ancestors.
Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.” -Yohji Yamamoto
Swipe File
Keep a swipe file. It’s just what it sounds like—a file to keep track of the stuff you’ve swiped from others. It can be digital or analog.
See something worth stealing?
Put it in the swipe file.
Need a little inspiration?
Open up the swipe file.
Write what you love, not what you know
The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best—write the story you want to read.
The same principle applies to your life and your career: Whenever you’re at a loss for what move to make next, just ask yourself, “What would make a better story.
Keep multiple passions in your life
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. This is something I learned from the playwright Steven Tomlinson.
“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” -Salvador Dali
We learn by copying our heroes
Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are.
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.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.” -Steve Jobs
From the book:-
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon