A review by mitzee
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

There are concepts in this book that aren’t necessarily new, it’s always nice to hear more than one person say/confirm them:
  • Don’t do art for money. Think about your art and your money separately. If you make money making art that’s great but it shouldn’t be your driving force if you want to make your art pure/great.
  • Ideas exist in the ether. Some people are better tuned into receiving them. And sometimes the ideas come to fruition because it was the right time for it. Just because you thought of it first maybe it wasn’t the right time for the idea. 
  • Related to the previous: Those people being the most sensitive to pulling these ideas out of the ether are also sometimes the people most sensitive to life in general.
  • I also like the preface he gives at the start: you don’t have to listen to any of this advice, take what you like, leave what you don’t like or doesn’t make sense to you.

But I agree that this book didn’t need to be so long, hahaha. It would be great if there was a cliffs notes version for those who just wanted the lunchables version and then this version for those who want the full buffet.