Steal Like an Artist
Austin Kleon · 2012
Steal Like an Artist (2012) is a book by Austin Kleon on career & skills. Ten unlock-your-creativity principles built on one idea: nothing is original, so steal from what you love and transform it. Kleon dismantles the myth of the lone genius and hands you practical habits to make art and get going today.
A pocket-sized permission slip that frees you to start now by embracing the liberating truth that nothing is original and every creator is a remix of what came before.
Two of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of Steal Like an Artist pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.
- Every creator is asked 'Where do you get your ideas?' Kleon's honest answer: you **steal** them. **Nothing is original**, every new idea is a remix or mashup of prior ideas, so you're free to study, collect, and transform the work you love without shame.
- There is **good theft** and **bad theft**. Good theft honors, studies, credits, transforms, and steals from *many* sources; bad theft degrades, plagiarizes, imitates, and rips off *one* source. The goal is to internalize influences until they become your own voice.
The other 5 — and the full 10-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 9 chapters
The whole summary runs about 10 minutes, read or listened to.
- Steal Like an Artist
- Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Get Started
- Write the Book You Want to Read
- Use Your Hands
- Side Projects and Hobbies Are Important
- The Secret: Do Good Work and Share It With People
- Geography Is No Longer Our Master
- Be Nice (The World Is a Small Town)
- Be Boring (and Creativity Is Subtraction)
Finish Steal Like an Artist tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 10 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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