5 Lessons From Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act: A Way of Being" (1/2)

"The Creative Act: A Way of Being" insights and analysis. What Fuels Creativity Part 1/2. • Wisdom Hit #3

Another book every creative should read to know themselves better. The book is divided into 78 short chapters, each focusing on a specific concept or insight about creativity and the creative process. We will look closer to a few of them, this is my reinterpretation so read the original book (seriously, it’s good) to know the original author’s thoughts.

If you don’t know who Rick is: Nine-time GRAMMY-winning producer, named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time and the most successful producer in any genre by Rolling Stone. He has collaborated with artists from Tom Petty to Adele, Johnny Cash to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys to Slayer, Kanye West to the Strokes, and System of a Down to Jay-Z.

Every person reading this knows at least one song produced by him.

1. Experimenter and finisher - which one are you?

In their nature, many artists lean toward one of two categories: Experimenters or Finishers.

Experimenters are partial to dreaming and play, finding it more difficult to complete and release their work.

Finishers are the mirror image, a backward reflection. They move quickly to the end point with immediate clarity. They are less interested in exploring the possibilities and alternatives that the Experimentation and Craft phases can suggest.

Each might find it helpful to borrow from the other.

I’m the experimenter, definitely. This chapter takes up about a page and a half in the book, but we will break it down in detail here.

The Experimenter

• Eager to start new projects and explore fresh ideas (often before finishing the previous project, kind of a shiny object chaser).

• Curious, wants to discover stuff.

• Flooding with ideas but struggles with sticking to one.

• Leaves projects unfinished due to distractions or lack of focus.

• Enjoys the process more than the outcome (sometimes).

• Likes to tweak unimportant details to perfection.

• More started projects than finished ones.

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  Example artists:

• Kanye West

• Andy Warhol

• Pablo Picasso

The Finisher

• Focused on refining, perfecting, and completing projects.

• Driven by the satisfaction of bringing work to closure.

• Would skip the process if possible.

• Maintains focus and determination through to the end.

• Struggles with starting new projects due to fear of failure or imperfection.

• Prefers familiar processes and approaches.

• Risks over-polishing or delaying completion in pursuit of perfection.

• More finished projects than started ones.

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Example artists:

• Michelangelo

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Stephen King

Didn’t ask them though.

2. Planting seeds

In the first phase of the creative process, we are to be completely open, collecting anything we find of interest.

We can call this the Seed phase. We’re searching for potential starting points that, with love and care, can grow into something beautiful. At this stage, we are not comparing them to find the best seed. We simply gather them.

A seed for a song could be a phrase, a melody, a bass line, or a rhythmic feel.

For a written piece, it may be a sentence, a character sketch, a setting, a thesis, or a plot point.

Everything is a remix, everything comes from, greater or lesser, inspiration. You throw seeds on the ground and nourish those that grow. You can choose your seeds: what you listen to while commuting, what you watch while eating, what you scroll on the toilet. Collecting seeds doesn’t require much effort. You can put more pressure on it to speed up the process, but it comes naturally as you just go through life.

Seeds can grow unexpectedly and rapidly. An inconspicuous one thrown in a dark and dry area of the field can spike up and bear a beautiful fruit. On the other hand, some seeds die despite watering.

Quantity breeds quality

The more seeds we collect, the more context we gain for deciding which to pursue. It’s rare that a seed brings no value at all. Placing more seeds in the strainer of circumstances and character reveals the good ones. Revisiting the seeds can reveal which germinate with low effort.

Practical takeaways: always write down good ideas asap, you can’t control when inspiration strikes but receive it well when it’s there.

3. When flowing, keep going

Ride the wave as long as it can be ridden. If you are fortunate enough to experience the strike of inspiration, take full advantage of the access. Remain in the energy of this rarefied moment for as long as it lasts. When flowing, keep going.

If you’re a writer and you tap into a stream of ideas before bed, you may want to stay with it until dawn (literally how my book originated). If you’re a musician and you’ve reached your goal of creating one song or ten songs, yet the music is still coming, capture all you can.

The work yielded may not be used in the current project, but it may be of use another time. Or it may not. The task of the artist is simply to recognize the transmission and stay with it in gratitude, until it truly runs its course.

The hardest part is starting. You can't swim without going into the water. Throwing yourself into water too deep will make you fight for survival, stepping into the water too shallow, will make a boring crouch walk. The middle is where the flow state is: