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Thoughts

I am beginning to read this immediately after Catching the Big Fish. It is written in the same short chapter (a few pages) format. I don’t love this format at all. It feels like the complete opposite of the typographic age (see: Amusing Ourselves To Death) and the modern era of ultra short form everything. Just because you are creative doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to convey your thoughts in a more distilled and less disjointed manner.

Now that I’m 1/3 of the way through, I can say this book is much better put together than Catching the Big Fish. The focus is on creativity and art. While the “chapters” are short, they flow well from one to the other and are all well connected.

There have been more than a few good pieces of advice for the would-be artist or even the person who might want to “tune in” to the world a little bit deeper.

For me, one of the best takeaways was to treat each thing you do as an experiment. Don’t get too caught up in the result. Let whatever happens happen. Then, you simply take the results of the experiment and move on to your next piece with a little more knowledge - with a little more refinement in your craft.

Exceptional Quotes

• It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment.

• While the eyes and the mouth can be sealed, an ear has no lid, nothing to close.

• In the process of experimentation, we allow ourselves to make mistakes, to go too far, to go even further, to be inept. There is no failure, as every step we take is necessary to reach our destination, including the missteps. Each experiment is valuable in its own way if we learn something from it. Even if we can’t comprehend its worth, we are still practicing our craft, moving ever so much closer to mastery.

• You can train for anything.

Table of Contents

There are no “chapters”.

page 16:

• This content does not come from inside us. The Source is out there.

page 21:

• The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and mundane and get to what might otherwise be invisible.

page 32:

• To support our practice, we might set up a daily schedule, where we engage in particular rituals at specific times every day or week. The gestures we perform don’t need to be grand. Small rituals can make a big difference.

page 34:

• In service of this robust instinct, consider submerging yourself in the canon of great works. Read the finest literature, watch the masterpieces of cinema, get up close to the most influential paintings, visit architectural landmarks.

• If you make the choice of reading classic literature every day for a year, rather than reading the news, by the end of that time period you’ll have a more honed sensitivity for recognizing greatness from the books than from the media.

• This applies to every choice we make. Not just with art, but with the friends we choose, the conversations we have, even the thoughts we reflect on. All of these aspects affect our ability to distinguish good from very good, very good from great. They help us determine what’s worthy of our time and attention.

• Because there’s an endless amount of data available to us and we have a limited bandwidth to conserve, we might consider carefully curating the quality of what we allow in.

page 46:

• We’re affected by our surroundings, and finding the best environment to create a clear channel is personal and to be tested. It also depends on your intention.

• Isolated places like a forest, a monastery, or a sailboat in the middle of the ocean are fine locations to receive direct transmissions from the universe. If instead you want to tune in to the collective consciousness, you might sit in a busy spot with people coming and going and experience Source as filtered through humanity. This secondhand approach is no less valid.

• One step further removed might be to plug into the culture itself, constantly consuming art, entertainment, news, and social media. All the while noticing the patterns the universe is promoting.

• One person’s connected place may be another’s distraction. And different environments may be right at different points in your artistic process. Andy Warhol was said to create with a television, radio, and record player all on simultaneously. For Eminem, the noise of a single TV set is his preferred backdrop for writing. Marcel Proust lined his walls with sound-absorbing cork, closed the drapes, and wore earplugs. Kafka too took his need for silence to an extreme—“not like a hermit,” he once said, but “like a dead man.” There is no wrong way. There is only your way.

page 50:

• Beginning a work, completing a work, and sharing a work—these are key moments where many of us become stuck.

• We tend to think that what we’re making is the most important thing in our lives and that it’s going to define us for all eternity. Consider moving forward with the more accurate point of view that it’s a small work, a beginning. The mission is to complete the project so you can move on to the next. That next one is a stepping-stone to the following work. And so it continues in productive rhythm for the entirety of your creative life.

• It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment.

page 63:

• The goal is not to fit in. If anything, it’s to amplify the differences

page 64:

• If you want to paint, you’re likely to begin by stretching canvas over a rectangular wooden frame and propping it up on an easel. Based solely on the tools selected, you’ve already exponentially narrowed what’s possible, before a single drop of paint has made contact with the canvas.

page 65:

• Similar conventions are woven into most art forms: a book is a certain number of pages and is divided into chapters. A feature film is 90 to 120 minutes and often has three acts. Embedded in each medium, there are sets of norms that restrain our work before we’ve even begun.

• These rules can serve or limit us. Be aware of any assumptions based on conventional wisdom.

• Rules obeyed unconsciously are far stronger than the ones set on purpose. And they are more likely to undermine the work.

page 66:

• Holding every rule as breakable is a healthy way to live as an artist.

page 67:

• Any rule is worth testing, be it conscious or unconscious. Challenge your assumptions and methods. You might find a better way. And even if it’s not better, you’ll learn from the experience. All of these experiments are like free throws. You have nothing to lose.

page 71:

• While the eyes and the mouth can be sealed, an ear has no lid, nothing to close.

page 72:

• Listening is suspending disbelief.

• We are openly receiving. Paying attention with no preconceived ideas. The only goal is to fully and clearly understand what is being transmitted, remaining totally present with what’s being expressed—and allowing it to be what it is.

page 74:

• The artist actively works to experience life slowly

page 76:

• If there is a rule to creativity that’s less breakable than the others, it’s that the need for patience is ever-present.

page 80:

• innovation through ignorance

• This is said in regard to approaching a problem with child-like eyes. Being so unaware of the literature, you come up with a novel solution. But ignorance is also useful in other ways. When we say something is too hard, we assume something about the task. If you had no idea how hard it would be (and your conclusions may very well be wrong anyway) you might make an attempt out of ignorance. There is something to being super intelligent to the point where you end up being too biased to planning - staying stuck in your head. If you, alternatively, were average intelligence you might not plan so much, might not even see the potential hurdles. But you got started. You might succeed. You might fail. The big brain who never even started won’t even be able to say they failed.

page 84:

• Train yourself to see the awe behind the obvious.

page 87:

• The way we do anything is the way we do everything.

page 105:

• If several directions seem captivating, consider crafting more than one experiment at a time. Working on several often brings about a healthy sense of detachment. When solely focused on one, it’s easy to get tunnel vision.

page 109:

• Do not let the scale of your imagination get in the way of executing a more practical version of your project.

page 119:

• By creating something you’d be excited to hear your favorite artist perform, it depersonalizes the process and can allow the writer to break free of themself. A quintessential song of female empowerment, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. King—and then, of course, Aretha Franklin—sang it. I was surprised to learn that Goffin wrote the lyrics and King the music.

page 123:

• If someone chooses to share feedback, listen to understand the person, not the work. People will tell you more about themselves than about the art when giving feedback. We each see a unique world.

page 126:

• This final phase is a fertile time to plant a new crop of seeds. The excitement of what’s coming next can generate the vital energy needed to bring the current work to its close. You may find it a struggle to keep yourself focused on the project at hand when new ideas start coming at you. This is a good problem to have. Riding the life force of the project to come often breaks us out of the trance of the present piece. We can’t wait to finish, because there’s another idea calling that lights us up.

page 132:

• The director Lars von Trier came up with ten rules, Dogme 95 The Vow of Chastity, designed to reduce the artificiality of filmmaking. They were as follows:

1. Shooting must be performed on location, without providing props or sets that don’t logically exist within that setting.
2. Diegetic sound only. Sounds must never be produced, such as music that does not exist within the scene.
3. All shots must be handheld. Movement, immobility, and stability must be attained by hand.
4. The film must be in color, with no special lighting. If there’s not enough exposure, a single lamp may be attached to the camera.
5. There can be no optical work or lens filters.
6. No ‘superficial’ action (such as staged murders, elaborate stunts, etc.).
7. Geographical alienation is strictly forbidden, meaning the film must take place here and now.
8. No genre movies.
9. Academy 35mm is the only accepted film format.
10. Directors must not be credited.

page 142:

• Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.

• Take the long view and detach (to some degree) from what happens to you in life.

page 152:

• Perfection is finally obtained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there’s no longer anything to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars

page 161:

• As artists, we are on a continual quest to get closer to the universe by getting closer to self.

page 167:

• Boosting our receptivity may require a relaxing of effort. If we’re trying to solve a problem, trying can get in the way. Splashing in a pond stirs up clouds of dirt in the clear water. In relaxing the mind, we may have greater clarity to hear the whisper when it comes.

page 172:

• In the process of experimentation, we allow ourselves to make mistakes, to go too far, to go even further, to be inept. There is no failure, as every step we take is necessary to reach our destination, including the missteps. Each experiment is valuable in its own way if we learn something from it. Even if we can’t comprehend its worth, we are still practicing our craft, moving ever so much closer to mastery.

page 186:

• Faithful note-taking by a connected observer helps prevent special moments from getting lost in the churn of excitement.

page 204:

• You can train for anything.

page 207:

• some create art that is completely context dependent. Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes, for example. In a grocery store, they’re disposable packaging for useful kitchen items. In a museum, they’re rare objects of fascination and intrigue.

• Or he was a complete hack, sponsored by the CIA as an agent of change, a harbinger of “pop” everything.

page 227:

• When receiving feedback, a useful practice is to repeat back the information. You may find that what you heard isn’t what was said. And what was said may not even be what was actually meant.

• Ask questions to gain clarity. When collaborators patiently explain what aspects of the work they’re focusing on, we may recognize that our visions are not in opposition. We’re just using different language or noticing different elements.