Fake it 'til you make it
I love this phase. 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 things -- 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.
I also love the book Just Kids by the musician Patti Smith. It's a story about how two friends who wanted to be artists moved to New York. You know how they learned to be artists?
"You start out as a phony and become real."
-- Glenn O'Brien (查看原文)
Marcel Duchamp said, "I don't believe in art. I believe in artists."
This is actually a pretty good method for 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. (查看原文)
All advice is autobiographical. When people give you advice, they are really just talking to themselves in the past.
Stop worrying about what's"good" and what's "bad", there's only stuff worth stealing, and stuff that's not worth stealing.
All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original. "There's nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again." (Andre Gide)
Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.
You are a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love." (Goethe)
You are only going to be as the stuff you surround yourself with.... (查看原文)
If you are out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take a really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can. "Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind. --Maira Kalman"
If you have 2 or 3 real passions, don't feel like you have to pic and choose between them. Don't discard. Keep all your passions in your life.
"If you love different things, you just keep spending time with them. Let them talk to each other. Something will begin to happen. --Tomlinson"
Do good work and share it with people.
If you worried about giving your secret away, you can share your dots without connecting them.
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.
I always carry a book, a pen, and a notepad, and I al... (查看原文)
One thing I've learned in my brief career:It's the side
projects that really take off.By side projects I mean the
stuff that you thought was just messing around.Stuff that'sjust play.That's actually the good stuff.That's when the
magic happens.
I think it's good to have a lot of projects going at once soyou can bounce between them.When you get sick of oneproject,move over to another,and when you're sick of thatone,move back to the project you left.Practice productiveprocrastination. (查看原文)
When we love a piece of art, we are desperate for more. We crave sequels. Why not channel that desire into something productive?
Think about your favorite work and your creative heroes. What did they miss? What did not they make? What could've been made better? It 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? (查看原文)
...In my experience, it's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.
YOU ARE READY. START MAKING STUFF.
...There's this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It's called "impostor syndrome." The clinical definition is a "phychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments." It means that you feel like a phony, like you're just winging it, that you really don't have any idea what you are doing. (查看原文)
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. (查看原文)
Just watch someone at their computer. They're so still, so immobile. You don't need a scientific study (of which there are few) to tell you that sitting in front of a computer all day is killing you, and killing your work. We need to move, to feel like we're making something with our bodies, nor just our heads
The computer is really good for editing your ideas, and it's really good for getting your ideas ready for publishing out into the world, but it's not really good for generating ideas. There are too many opportunities to hit the delete key. The computer brings out the uptight perfectionist in us--we start editing ideas before we have them. 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 in... (查看原文)
Don't ask a question before you google it. You'll either find the answer or you'll come up with a better question
Filmmaker John Waters has said, "nothing is more important than an unread library." (查看原文)
It's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.
Impostor syndrome: a "psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments ." It means that you feel like a phony, like you are just winging it, that you really don't have any idea what you're doing. However, anybody who is had done truly creative work doesn't know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day.
Fake it till you make it.
You start out as a phony and become real. Glenn O' Brien
We don't come out of the womb knowing who we are. We learn by pretending to be our heroes. Copying is about reverse-engineering. It's like a mechanic taking apart a car to see how it works. "Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy. At the end of ... (查看原文)
The best advice is not to write what you know, it's to write what you like. Whenever you're at a loss for what move to make next, just ask yourself, "What would make a better story? "
Think about your favorite work and you creative heroes. What did they miss? What didn't they make? What could have been made better? If all your favorite makers got together and collaborated, what would they make with you leading the crew?
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. (查看原文)
Your hands are the original digital devices. Use them.
If you have space, set up two workstations, one analog and one digital. For your analog station, keep out of anything electronic. Stand up while you are working. Once you start getting your ideas, then you can move over to your digital station and use the computer to help you execute and publish them. (查看原文)
It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.
How does an artist look at the world? First, you figure out what’s worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing. That’s about all there is to it. 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. Everything is up for grabs.
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.”
There’s an economic theory out there that if you take the incomes of your five closest friends and average them, the resulting number will be pretty close to your own income. I t... (查看原文)
作者: Austin Kleon 副标题: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative isbn: 0761169253 书名: Steal Like an Artist 页数: 160 定价: USD 12.95 出版社: Workman Publishing Company 出版年: 2012-2-28 装帧: Paperback
