My Notes -

Steal Like an Artist

How to Look at the World (Like an Artist)

When you look at the world this way, you stop worrying about what’s “good” and what’s “bad”—there’s only stuff worth stealing, and stuff that’s not worth stealing.

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

Nothing is Original

As the French writer André Gide put it, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

The Genealogy of Ideas

Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.

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.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

The artist is a collector. Not a hoarder, mind you, there’s a difference: Hoarders collect indiscriminately, artists collect selectively. They only collect things that they really love.

Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.

Climb Your Own Family Tree

studying—if you try to devour the history of your discipline all at once, you’ll choke. Instead, chew on one thinker—writer, artist, activist, role model—you really love. Study everything there is to know about that thinker. 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.

The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can’t refuse you as an apprentice. You can learn whatever you want from them. They left their lesson plans in their work.

School Yourself

You have to be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else—that’s how you’ll get ahead.

Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.

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.”

Don’t worry about doing research. Just search.

Save Your Thefts For Later

Carry a notebook and a pen with you wherever you go. Get used to pulling it out and jotting down your thoughts and observations. Copy your favorite passages out of books. Record overheard conversations. Doodle when you’re on the phone.

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—it doesn’t matter what form it takes, as long as it works. You can keep a scrapbook and cut and paste things into it, or you can just take pictures of things with your camera phone.

See something worth stealing? Put it in the swipe file. Need a little inspiration? Open up the swipe file.

Newspaper reporters call this a “morgue file”—I like that name even better. Your morgue file is where you keep the dead things that you’ll later reanimate in your work.

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

Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are to get Started

Make Things, Know Thyself.

You’re ready. Start making stuff.

Guess what: None of us do. 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.

Fake It Till You Make It

Fake it ’til you make it. I love this phrase.

There are two ways to read 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.

I love both readings—you have to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing.

“You start out as a phony and become real.”—Glenn O’Brien

Start Copying

“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.”—Yohji Yamamoto

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. It’s like a mechanic taking apart a car to see how it works.

As Salvador Dalí said, “Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”

First, you have to figure out who to copy. Second, you have to figure out what to copy.

The writer Wilson Mizner said if you copy from one author, it’s plagiarism, but if you copy from many, it’s research.

cartoonist Gary Panter say, “If you have one person you’re influenced by, everyone will say you’re the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you’re so original!”

Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.

Imitation is Not Flattery

In O’Brien’s words, “It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.”

“I 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

Write The Book You Want to Read

Write What You Like

“My interest in making music has been to create something that does not exist that I would like to listen to. I wanted to hear music that had not yet happened, by putting together things that suggested a new thing which did not yet exist.”—Brian Eno

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?”

When we love a piece of work, we’re desperate for more. We crave sequels. Why not channel that desire into something productive?

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.

Use Your Hands

“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

Step Away From the Screen

computers are alienating because they put a sheet of glass between you and whatever is happening. “You never really get to touch anything that you’re doing unless you print it out,” Donwood says.

The cartoonist Tom Gauld says he stays away from the computer until he’s done most of the thinking for his strips, because once the computer is involved, “things are on an inevitable path to being finished. Whereas in my sketchbook the possibilities are endless.”

Try it: If you have the space, set up two workstations, one analog and one digital. For your analog station, keep out anything electronic.

Side Projects And Hobbies Are Important

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

Practice, Productive, Procrastination

Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. I get some of my best ideas when I’m bored, which is why I never take my shirts to the cleaners. I love ironing my shirts—it’s so boring, I almost always get good ideas. If you’re out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take a really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can.

Take time to mess around. Get lost. Wander. You never know where it’s going to lead you.

Don't Throw Any of Yourself Away

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.”

It’s so important to have a hobby. A hobby is something creative that’s just for you. You don’t try to make money or get famous off it, you just do it because it makes you happy. A hobby is something that gives but doesn’t take.

The Secret: Do Good Work and Share it With People

In The Beginning, Obscurity is Good.

learn that most of the world doesn’t necessarily care about what you think. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. As the writer Steven Pressfield says, “It’s not that people are mean or cruel, they’re just busy.”

This is actually a good thing, because you want attention only after you’re doing really good work. There’s no pressure when you’re unknown. You can do what you want.

Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts. Use it.

The Not-So-Secret Formula

Do good work and share it with people.

You should wonder at the things nobody else is wondering about.

The more open you are about sharing your passions, the closer people will feel to your work. Artists aren’t magicians. There’s no penalty for revealing your secrets.

People love it when you give your secrets away, and sometimes, if you’re smart about it, they’ll reward you by buying the things you’re selling.

Whenever I’ve become lost over the years, I just look at my website and ask myself, “What can I fill this with?”

You don’t have to share everything—in fact, sometimes it’s much better if you don’t. Show just a little bit of what you’re working on. Share a sketch or a doodle or a snippet. Share a little glimpse of your process. Think about what you have to share that could be of some value to people. Share a handy tip you’ve discovered while working. Or a link to an interesting article. Mention a good book you’re reading.

“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

Geography is No Longer Our Master

Build Your Own World

You don’t have to live anywhere other than the place you are to start connecting with the world you want to be in.

In the meantime, if you’re not into the world you live in, you can build your own world around you. (Now would be a good time to put on your headphones and cue up the Beach Boys song “In My Room.”) Surround yourself with books and objects that you love. Tape things up on the wall. Create your own world.

All you need is a little space and a little time—a place to work, and some time to do it; a little self-imposed solitude and temporary captivity.

Leave Home

To say that geography is no longer our master isn’t to say that place isn’t important. Where we choose to live still has a huge impact on the work we do.

Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some time in another land, among people that do things differently than you. Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder.

I enjoy the many filmmakers, musicians, and tech geeks who live in Austin. Oh, and food. The food should be good. You have to find a place that feeds you—creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally.

Even if you set up a new home, you need to leave it now and then. And at some point, you might need to just move on. The good news is that nowadays, a lot of your peers are right where you left them—on the Internet.

Be Nice. (The World is a Small Town)

Make Friends, Ignore Enemies.

If you talk about someone on the Internet, they will find out. Everybody has a Google alert on their name. The best way to vanquish your enemies on the Internet? Ignore them. The best way to make friends on the Internet? Say nice things about them.

Stand Next to The Talent

You’re only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with. In the digital space, that means following the best people online—the people who are way smarter and better than you, the people who are doing the really interesting work. Pay attention to what they’re talking about, what they’re doing, what they’re linking to.

“Find the most talented person in the room, and if it’s not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. Try to be helpful.”

If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.

Write Fan Letters

If you truly love somebody’s work, you shouldn’t need a response from them. (And if the person you want to write to has been dead for a hundred years, you’re really out of luck.) So, I recommend 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 on their work and share it online.

The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return, and that you get new work out of the appreciation.

Keep a Praise File

Instead of keeping a rejection file, keep a praise file. Use it sparingly—don’t get lost in past glory—but keep it around for when you need the lift.

Be Boring. (It's The Only Way to Get Work Done)

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”—Gustave Flaubert

Take Care of Yourself

The thing is: It takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.

Eat breakfast. Do some push-ups. Go for long walks. Get plenty of sleep.

it’s better to burn slow and see your grandkids.

Stay Out of Debt

Do yourself a favor: Learn about money as soon as you can.

it’s not the money you make, it’s the money you hold on to.” Make yourself a budget. Live within your means. Pack your lunch. Pinch pennies. Save as much as you can. Get the education you need for as cheap as you can get it. The art of holding on to money is all about saying no to consumer culture. Saying no to takeout, $4 lattes, and that shiny new computer when the old one still works fine.

Keep Your Day Job

A day job gives you money, a connection to the world, and a routine. Freedom from financial stress also means freedom in your art.

photographer Bill Cunningham says, “If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do.”

The 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. Good day jobs aren’t necessarily easy to find, but they’re out there.

Get Yourself A Calender

Amassing a body of work or building a career is a lot about the slow accumulation of little bits of effort over time. Writing a page each day doesn’t seem like much, but do it for 365 days and you have enough to fill a novel. One successful client pitch is a small victory, but a few dozen of them can get you a promotion.

Get a calendar. Fill the boxes. Don’t break the chain.

Keep A Logbook

A logbook isn’t necessarily a diary or a journal, it’s just 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. It’s much easier than keeping a detailed diary, and you’d be amazed at how helpful having a daily record like this can be, especially over several years. The small details will help you remember the big details.

In the old days, a logbook was a place for sailors to keep track of how far they’d traveled, and that’s exactly what you’re doing—keeping track of how far your ship has sailed.

Creativity is Subtraction

Choose What to Leave Out

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.

Don’t make excuses for not working—make things with the time, space, and materials you have, right now.

“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

What makes us interesting isn’t just what we’ve experienced, but also what we haven’t experienced.

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

What Now?

Talk a walk
Start your swipe file
Go to the library
Buy a notebook and use it
Get yourself a calendar
Start your logbook
Give a copy of this book away
Start a blog
Take a nap