Steal Like an Artist • Book Review

Just like you, perhaps, I was intrigued by the title and the unusual look of the book. And I instantly bought the book, as I was more curious about new ways to stea... uhmm, be creative. What I gained are not only insights on harnessing creativity but also interesting approaches to living life.

There is nothing new under the sun. Nothing is completely original. And the author, Austin, explains how every idea is a new mashup or remix of one or more previous ideas with the concept of geneology. Ideas are like how we are to our parents and ancestors. Let's take social media today as an example.

You'll find everywhere, even on Hive, creators serving content continually. Every now and then, you'll find something you didn't know before. Maybe it's even new. It is, however, not exactly "new" in most cases. Something or some idea [that's probably not even theirs] inspired their own idea, or they just improved on another idea. And then it looks... new! That is, we're all technically stealing from one another.

Okay. Maybe "stealing" isn't the best way to describe it. The point is to collect good ideas and select the ones to be influenced by. Garbage in, garbage out. And a way to do this is to climb your own family tree. Austin Kleon teaches in this book to find yourself a creative lineage—a tree made up of selected people to be influenced by, as well as those that influenced them—and make your own branch.

And then, just start making stuff. Fake it till you make it. Steal Like an Artist teaches that in imitating the people, the works, and the crafts that we want to be like, we get closer to finding ourselves. However, imitating can only take one far—you have to emulate at some point instead to truly find your craft. Otherwise, you just become a rip-off rather than original. This is very true, especially in music.

Many of the guitarists I know were influenced by some guitarists before them. They may have tried mastering the styles and skills of their heroes, but they eventually trailed off at one point and developed their own styles and skills.

"It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique." A quote by Conan O'Brien that encourages good theft. Honor. Study. Steal from many (rather than one). Credit. Transform. Remix. As opposed to bad theft that degrades, plagiarises, and only imitates.

An approach to life and creativity is to use your hands. Austin explains the importance of staying away from our screens and doing things with our bodies as a much better way to spur creativity. It's easier to click the delete button and struggle to write than using a pen and just forging ahead.

It may have a small book with few words, but the 10 things that Austin teaches about being creative in Steal Like an Artist help see and understand better ways to approach work and creation.

The book itself spells creativity from the beginning till the end. The fonts were rather playful and sometimes varied in font size. And there were a lot of fun sketches. I liked that the book was a great example of what it teaches. I recommend Steal Like an Artist for anyone interested in a self-help book that's different and fun.