Austin Kleon - Steal Like an Artist (2012)

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Genealogy of ideas. You don't get to pick your family, but you can pick your teachers and you can pick your friends and you can pick the music you listen to and you can pick the books you read and you can pick the movies you see.

Austin Kleon
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.

Austin Kleon
Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored -- the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.

Austin Kleon
Pretend to be making something until you actually make something.

Austin Kleon
So go on, get angry. But keep your mouth shut and go do your work.

Austin Kleon
The computer brings out the uptight perfectionist in us - we start editing ideas before we have them.

Austin Kleon
You're only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with.

Austin Kleon
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.

Austin Kleon
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.

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

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

Austin Kleon
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.

Austin Kleon
What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.

Austin Kleon
The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.

Austin Kleon
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."

Austin Kleon
School is one thing. Education is another. The two don't always overlap. Whether you're in school or not, it's always your job to get yourself an education.

Austin Kleon
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.

Austin Kleon
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.

Austin Kleon
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:

Austin Kleon
If you're worried about giving your secrets away, you can share your dots without connecting them.

Austin Kleon