Takeaways
- Our creations are but a water drop in the flow of human creativity.
- Originality is our taste in collections and our endeavor in the face of imperfection.
- Through creation, we are shaping the world we want to live in.
Book Notes
My notes are in the form of clipping that summarizes a book in the author’s own words. I have organized the excerpts from the book in a way that I find most digestible. Hope you enjoy it!
This format is also inspired by Austin and his work Newspaper Blackout
All quotes are from the original author.
The Truth and Path to Originality
Nothing is Completely Original
“There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
“The writer Jonathan Lethem has said that when people call something ‘original’, nine out of ten times they just don’t know the references or the original sources involved.”
“Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Seeing yourself as part of a creative lineage will help you feel less alone as you start making your own stuff.”
“I recommend public fan letters. … The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return, and that you get new work out of the appreciation.”
Surrounded By Your Love
“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.” – Goethe
“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
“You have to find a place that feeds you—creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally.”
“Find the most talented person in the room, and if it’s not you, go stand next to him. If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.”
Copy => Originality
“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.” —Yohji Yamamoto
“The songwriter Nick Lowe says, “You start out by rewriting your hero’s catalog.” And you don’t just steal from one of your heroes, you steal from all of them.”
“The writer Wilson Mizner said if you copy from one author, it’s plagiarism, but if you copy from many, it’s research.”
“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!” – Cartoonist Gary Panter
“A wonderful flaw about human beings is that we’re 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”
“It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.” – Conan O’Brien
Create For Yourself
You have to start doing the work you want to be doing.
“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.”
“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
Going Through The Motions
“The motion kickstarts our brain into thinking.”
“Don’t worry about doing research. Just search.”
“It’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.”
Secrets to Staying Creative
Take Time To Be Bored.
“Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind.” – Maira Kalman
“The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” —Jessica Hische
“It isn’t necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.” – Franz Kafka
Limitation = Freedom
“It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom.”
“Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The idea that you can do anything is absolutely terrifying.”
“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 we respond to in any work of art is the artist’s struggle against his or her limitations.” – artist Saul Steinberg
“Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat with only 236 different words, so his editor bet him he couldn’t write a book with only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss came back and won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.”
Enjoy Your Obscurity
“Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts. Use it.”
“There is a kind of fallout that happens when you leave college. The classroom is a wonderful, if artificial, place: Your professor gets paid to pay attention to your ideas, and your classmates are paying to pay attention to your ideas. Never again in your life will you have such a captive audience.”
“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 you from getting better.”
“Life is a lonely business, often filled with discouragement and rejection.”
“So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored—the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.”
Get A Day Job
“The art of holding on to money is all about saying no to consumer culture”
“The truth is that even if you’re lucky enough to make a living off doing what you truly love, it will probably take you a while to get to that point. Until then, you’ll need a 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.”
“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.”
“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”
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