The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
January Book Summary
We are all creators.
I am an engineer. I don’t make money from TikTok or do social media as my full time job. I go to work and solve complex problems, working at the forefront of jet engine design and manufacturing.
I heard first about this book while I was listening to Rick on the Huberman Lab Podcast. That episode had me extremely excited to dive into the book.
Logistically the chapters are easily digestible. I wouldn’t consider myself an avid reader and I am usually slow to finish a book. I found this one easy to pick up and knock off 20-40 page at a clip, grab a few highlights and feel very good about the progress I was making. Rick and team did a great job of breaking this up into bite sized bits of information.
I took quite a few highlights, scanned into apple notes, since I was reading this as a hardcover and not on my kindle.
If you don’t do it, someone else will.
“If you have an idea you're excited about and you don't bring it to life, it's not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker.“
It is really hard to have an original idea in this day and age. The unique thing about each one of us is our perspective on the world. So share the thing you are interested and excited about, with your own message. Over time your personality will shine through and someone who might have come to your content for the uplifting message or educational value, will end ups staying because of you.
One of the major causes of paralysis analysis when starting out is “I don’t know what to make” so instead of making something, procrastination sets in and nothing is made. I can vividly remember thinking about starting a YouTube channel for over a decade, until one day I did.
Time passes and people change
Over time people change, so whatever is being made is just a snapshot in time of today’s perspective. I’ve kept this in mind, trying to treat more things like diary entries that I can reference back to and less like “I must make this thing to satisfy an audience”.
Today I am interested in making a video about the tech that I use in the gym that helps me with my health goals. 6 months from now those apps might be different, or I might not care at all about tracking the data and just care that I am being healthy. I don’t know and that is the beauty with it.
Turn down the outside voices
“It’s your time”. Sometimes it isn’t even the outside voices that impact us the most, it is our own voice. Building self confidence comes with time and experience. Knowing when to block out the outside and inside voices and turn on the jets is a hard thing to grasp. All I can say is, I knew when it was finally time and went for it.
“All art is a work in progress”
Nothing is perfect, no matter what there will always be things that you would have liked to do differently or change but putting work out into the world will surely get you feedback to learn from. The goal is to share who we are and how we see the world - everyone’s perspective is unique. It’s why you can watch a product review from 5 different people and each one has something different to say(if they are thinking for themselves and not influenced in any way).
Sometimes I am still scared of turning on the camera and procrastination and excuses will stop me from making a video. But now that I have started I’m not sure I could actually stop. Some time may pass between videos, but that doesn’t matter. Getting another project going is what counts.
Make it for yourself. Make art that you would want to see, do, hear, read. Don’t worry about the audience.
Volume does not equal value.
Boy that rings true with me today. Social media is littered with people shouting the loudest about what you have to do, content strategies to make you rich, I AM SO SUCCESSFUL! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! This sure can make you think you need to be doing something else. Ultimately telling people what to do usually ends up with them doing the opposite. If I am giving advice to someone I’ll use my own examples and pick apart my mistakes and how I could have done things differently to give perspective. That way the individual can make up their own mind about how to handle the situation.
Challenge is not that you can’t do it, but you haven’t done it yet. I love this mindset. 33 years into this life and there is plenty that I haven’t done yet and not a whole lot that I think I could not do.
Lastly be authentic.
“Anything that allows the audience to access how you see the world is accurate, even if the information is wrong.” -Rick Rubin
Ignore the armchair experts who need to touch grass. Your unique perspective matters a whole lot, so be true to that in your art.
We are all creators. Such a simple statement, so full of truth.
Nowadays, you might think of a creator as someone who does TikTok or social media as their full time job. My full time job as an engineer requires me to create things on a daily basis. Create decisions, solutions, new products, plans, schedules, PowerPoints, spreadsheets and more.
I never thought about it like that. I did always associate creativity with the arts, so while I am creative at work, I also considered myself creative when I take photos and edit them or make videos on YouTube or for instagram.
As it turns out I am a creator.
