Steal like an Artist

Austin Kleon’s book is essentially a blog post turned in to a book .The basic theme of the book is that in art as in other forms, you have to steal. The word steal has a negative connotation and hence the book differentiates between two kinds of thefts:

Basically theft in this sense means that you are free from the burden of trying to be completely original. Most of the book is common sense stuff but how often do we really follow commonsense ? 

There are some nice visuals in the book. Some of them that I found interesting are :

Very often, ONLY when you have multiple ideas,
that you are capable of coming up with a perfect idea that works

 

It is better to separate your workspace in to analog and digital mode

Paul Graham in one of his essays says that he follows a similar configuration where he uses two computers, one connected to internet and the other offline, so that while working on something that requires concentration, the urge to browse randomly, check email, tweets, blogs is eliminated.

 

As Steve Jobs says, you cannot connect dots going forward.
However, dots you create in fact make you what you are.

 

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.

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

— Gustave Flaubert