Steal Like an Artist - Austin Kleon

My recommendation: 9/10

A quick coffee time read with lots of practical tips and common sense stuff for all types of creative people. This book comes as a good reminder of how we should not overthink to take action and how we do not have to worry about being original to be successful. Take inspiration from others, put your own touch, share your progress...

Notes:

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

Don't wait until you know who you are to get started.

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

Pretend to be making something until you actually make something

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

At some point, you'll have to move from imitating your heroes to emulating them. Imitation is about copying. emulation  is when imitation goes one step further, breaking through into your own thing

A wonderful flaw about human beings is that we are incapable of making perfect copies. Old failure to copy our heroes is where we discover where our own thing lives. That’s how we evolve.

The best advice is not to write what you know, it is to write what you like

Think about your favourite work and creative heroes. What did they miss? What didn’t they make? What could have been made better? If they were still alive, what would they be making today? If all your Favorite makers got together and collaborated, what would they make with you leading the crew?

Take time to be bored. Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. I get some of my best ideas when I am bored.

Whenever I have 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 is much better if you don’t. Show just a little bit of what you are working on. Share a sketch or a doodle or a snippet. Share a little glimpse of your process.

Surround yourself with books and objects that you love. Tape things up on your wall. Create your own world.

Complain about the way other people make software by making software. - Andre Torez

If you have any comments or questions about this book notes, you can write me at Twitter @oykun or email me at hello[at]oykun.com.

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