JEAN PHILIP DE TENDER

1. Steal like an artist.
2. Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.
3. Write the book you want to read.
4. Use your hands.
5. Side projects and hobbies are important.
6. The secret : do good work and share it with people.
7. Geography is no longer our master.
8. Be nice. (The world is a small town.)
9. Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)
10. Creativity is substraction.

Ik verslind ze, die boekjes over creativiteit. En er is een stapeltje dat ik meteen weer van de hand doe, en een stapeltje dat ik met plezier cadeau doe aan vrienden. “Steal like an artist. 10 things nobody told about being creative.” van Austin Kleon is zo’n boekje.

Ik herkende me in veel van de hoofdstukken. In het bijzonder in dit fragment :

You don’t have to live anywhere other than the place you are to start connecting with the world you want to be in. If you feel stuck somewhere, if you’re too young or too old or too broke, or if you’re somehow tied down a place, take heart. There’s a community of people out there you can connect with.

In the mean time, if you’re not into the world you live in, you can build a world around you. (Now would be a good time to put on your headphones and cue up the Beach Boys song “In my room”). Surround yourself with books and objects that you love. Tape things on the wall. Create your own world.

Franz Kafka wrote, “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.” And Kafka was born a century  before the Internet !

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 solitute and temporary captivity.

“Steal like an artist. 10 things nobody told you about being creative.”, Austin Kleon, Workman Publishing Company, 2012.