Here are my 78 bullet points on Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being — a.k.a. the book that misses a nipple.

Life, art and creativity

  • We are all creative simply by means of living. Living, we are constantly creating our reality. Living is a creative act. We exist as creative beings in a creative universe. Life is creation.
    • Creatives vs artists. Creatives make things happen more generally.
    • We are constantly designing our experience of reality — whether we do so consciously or unconsciously.
    • We are immersed in a field of undifferentiated matter. We can go any which way at any moment; we can call forth anything at any moment.
  • Art is the fruit of humanity. Humans produce art, just as trees produce flowers and fruits.
  • Art is beyond utilitarianism — we do not create a work of art for it to be useful to somebody else; only to express who we are.
  • Artistic creations are externalized dreams — creations of the subconscious, not fully understood by the person, and revealing them.
  • Reason for making art: “When we’re making things we love, our mission is accomplished. There’s nothing at all to figure out.”
  • Be near what you love. Work in adjacent spheres.
  • Every production, every work of art, is unique and different — incomparable. Just like the different fruits and flowers of a tree. We are all producing art as so many different trees bearing fruit.
  • Every person is a unique channel to a higher wisdom.
  • We’re all different and we’re all imperfect.
    • The imperfections are what makes each of us and our work interesting.
  • If you’re not up for it, no one else can do it. (No one else can create your art.) Your work is representative of your self. You’re the only person who can create the works that can come out of you. You are the only person who can do your art.
  • “The personal is the universal” (Carl Rogers) (× The Hero With a Thousand Faces)
  • “The true instrument is you”: “No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you.” We are the instruments of the universe.
  • We are blind to the big picture. We are instrumentalist in a symphony that the universe is orchestrating. We have no idea what the magnum opus might be, because we can only see the small part we play (× All About Love)
  • Discover yourself through the art you make. You know yourself through what you make, not what you think you are. “It may not be possible to know who you are without somehow expressing it.” (× inductive reasoning, Psychedelics Revealing) (× Chekhov: recurring themes of playwrights)
  • You don’t have to understand your art ­— or why it works. (Nobody really knows.) (× Psycho-Cybernetics)
  • “The familiar coming back to us in an unfamiliar form” — art that strikes us.
  • You either go with the trends, or against them.
  • “Some things are too important to be taken seriously.” (Oscar Wilde) Goof around with art.
  • Detached living: “I wasn’t expecting that plot twist. I wonder what’s going to happen to our hero next.”
  • There is always a next scene, and that next scene may be one of great beauty and fulfillment.
  • “Scope of life”: how broadly are you living?

Creativity, life and art

  • Creativity is always present. You just choose not to engage. (× Improvise: out of everything, not out of nothing).
  • We are blessed to be able to create. It’s a privilege.
  • Inspiration is a river: if we contain it, it stops flowing. By producing and sharing our work, we allow the river of inspiration to continue flowing. By hoarding our ideas, we receive fewer ideas.
  • Be part of an artistic community.
  • The same thing done by different people yields different results — because people are different. Emulation is adaptation. (× Chekhov “If you were to ask two equally talented artists to paint the same landscape with the utmost exactitude, the result would be two markedly different pictures.”; × Chekhov (same things done differently); )
  • Raising the bar to raise our game: others raising the bar and inspiring us to raise our game. “Rising-to-meet”. Co-inspiration, not competition: not to diminish others, but to elevate oneself. “An upward spiral toward magnificence.”
    • Cycle of inspired creation: people inspired by works make new works that inspire other people.
    • Great art is an invitation, for creators to create at even higher or deeper levels.
  • Schools don’t favour self-expression or self-discovery.

Skills, skills and beliefs

  • More knowledge is more resources to optionally draw from.
  • It’s not that you can’t do it, it’s just that you haven’t done it yet. (e.g. technical skills)
  • Faith: The solution exists, it’s just about finding it. Faith is working under the assumption that the problem is already solved, that the solution is out there but that we haven’t come across it yet.
  • Not being aware of a challenge may be just what we need to rise to it.
  • Discipline is not a lack of freedom, it is a harmonious relationship with time. Managing one’s time well is necessary to be able to make consistent room for art.
    • Save cognitive energy for the work itself, not for making the conditions for it. “The more you reduce your daily life-maintenance tasks, the greater the bandwidth available for creative decisions.”
  • Agency over ourself, not what’s around us. We have control over ourselves but no control over our circumstances. Subject of our inner world, subject to the outside world.

Ideation, ideation, ideation

  • Question the template — starting with a canvas already narrows down the possibilities.
  • Pay particular attention to the moments that take your breath away — and make a song out of it.
  • Look for what you notice but no one else sees. (× Chekhov)
  • Creation can be inspired by romanticized memories.
  • Holding loosely: distract the mind with a conscious “autopilot” task (walking, reading, driving, tidying up) to let subconscious thoughts come up.
  • Test everything. The only way to know if an idea works is to test it. If you want to have the best idea, test everything. (× The Toyota Way)
  • Exercises for breaking the sameness ­— and in relationships (state, atmosphere, meaning, activity, voyeurism, drugs, open relationships, minimalist reducing).
    • Make small progress every day.
    • Change the environment, atmosphere.
    • Change the meaning, the frame.
    • Make it high-stakes ­— or make it low-stakes.
    • Invite an audience — even for non-performative art (such as window-cleaning).
    • Amplify differently.
      • Turn everything up to play quietly. Turn everything down to play loudly.
      • Turn the rest up to play loudly. Turn the rest down to play quietly.
      • Turn your volume up to pay more attention to your self (e.g. your voice) (× psychedelics — amplify impressions)
      • If you turn everything up, the quietest things become beautiful (ASMR, whispers, field recording) — “sensitivity”.
      • Contexts for loudness — contexts for quietness. Public speaking — sacred dance spaces.
      • (× Juxtaposition: successive contrasts amplify differences; Chekhov)
      • (× Psychedelics Revealing: “Turn up the music or turn down the noise”)
    • Create a piece for your favourite artist to perform it — or for an artist very different from you to perform it.
      • (× Delegate execution) (× “à la manière de”)
      • (× Being temporarily in somebody else’s mind: read memoirs.)
    • Paint a picture. Use different senses to inspire. Start from the atmosphere (× Chekhov)
  • Other tips:
    • Do the opposite.
    • Purposefully experiment past the boundaries of your taste. Try different genres; explore! Different flavours of people!
    • Accentuate the fault. Kintsugi (filling up cracks with gold) (no relation to the famous singer) (× Improvise: own your mistakes; failure bow; celebrate mistakes; “yes, and” them; assertiveness)
  • Attention gives life. Pay attention to something inside you — it grows (visuospatial abilities; awareness of sensations; exercising empathy; etc.). Pay attention to something outside you — it grows (plants; projects; relationships; home). (× Psychedelics Revealing: Attention to a resource develops it.)
    • Symbiotic relationships: the thing brings you excitement, you bring it growth (for an ability — or a project) (× pollination).
    • (Psychedelics amplify impressions, thereby make us pay more attention to things, and we thereby give them more life — psychedelics are life-giving; give life all around us. And the life around us in turn fills us with life, inspires us. (× cycle of inspired creation))
  • Contrasts amplify. Juxtapose a loud song with a quiet song. A loud song after a quiet song sounds even louder.
  • No transition. Put two pieces together without transition for a bold effect.
  • Don’t fit your work. Amplify the differences — what doesn’t fit.
  • Delegate execution of the art, if ideation rather than execution is more important for you.
  • Limit information. If you want creators to bring all of themselves to something, give them the most freedom to create. (e.g. in creating a piece for an event.)
  • Collaboration
    • Collectives vs hierarchies — both work.
    • Don’t speak the idea; demonstrate it — or supervise its execution.
    • When giving feedback, be specific, clinical and don’t share your fix immediately.
    • When receiving feedback, first repeat what you understood.

Crafting, execution, and practical tips

  • Use the ecstatic as compass.
  • Demo-itis: do not repetitively consume the unfinished work, unless it’s to actively improve it. Getting attached to a demo prevents you from developing the work to its full potential.
  • Beware of external pressures compromising your art ­— different parties have different stakes (unless it’s a skate party) (× The Design of Everyday Things)
  • Put on different hats as you hone in on a piece — e.g. the finisher, etc. (× Your Symphony of Selves)
  • Set deadlines for ideation; set deadlines for creation.
  • A/B test everything, blind; limit to two choices. (× Sex Talks).
  • Reference-track everything. Juxtapose your show with a model — see how they compare. Get inspired; bridge the gap.
  • Record and document everything when improvising, to come back to the ideas generated. “We’re constantly generating detailed notes on focus points and experiments to test to prevent special moments from getting lost in the churn of excitement.” Take notes in the moment; review them shortly after.
  • Maintain momentum. Temporarily skip hurdles. “A bridge is easier to build when it’s clear what’s on either side of it.” You know where a center puzzle piece should go if it’s the only piece missing (vs on an empty tabletop).
  • Distill a fully-fleshed work to its essence.
  • Perfection is stripping down, not adding up.
    • “Perfection happens when there’s nothing more to remove, not nothing more to add.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
    • Ruthless edits: strip the piece down to less than the essentials; add back and see if the additions actually make the piece better or are just fillers.
    • Not more for the sake of more, but more for the sake of better.
  • Rules for reducing artificiality (Lars van Trier’s Dogme 95, Money Mark’s rules for music)
  • A rule is a way of structuring awareness.
  • Details can make the work; the tiniest details can weigh the most.
  • Raw is sometimes better than perfect. The work is not about perfection — an imperfection version might be better than the perfect version.
  • Expose to an audience early on, for you to re-experience the work with an audience present.
  • When making art, the audience comes last.
  • When receiving feedback from an audience, listen to understand the person, not the work (not what they’re talking about) — empathetic listening (× Chekhov)

Completion & release time

  • Complete projects so you can move on to the next one. Being impatient to begin the next project: “a good problem to have.”
    • Complete art fast or it loses relevance. Art captures a moment in the life of an artist.
  • Once completed, a work of art gets released (into the world)
  • Fear of completion (perfectionism) is fear of permanence — “commitment phobia”
  • We only get to experience works of art that have been completed — maybe some artists made even greater art than today’s masterpieces, but they never completed it.
  • Declare the work completed, or it goes on forever. There are forever changes to be made — every work of art is simply an iteration. (× The Art of Gathering: an event should end, not stop)