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Originality isn\u2019t about doing what\u2019s never been done in a strict sense, but it\u2019s about the unique way in which each individual gives expression to his or her artistic influences. Quoting Jonathan Lethem, Kleon argues that \u201cwhen people call something \u2018original,\u2019 nine out of ten times they just don\u2019t know the references or the original sources involved.\u201dIt\u2019s a simple idea, but not as simple<\/b> as \u201ccopy the people you like\u201d and you\u2019ll be an instant genius.The kind of stealing Kleon refers to is not about pretending you came up with somebody else\u2019s idea or just modifying a few details, but it\u2019s about being strategic and selective with the process of choosing your influences, taking what resonates with you, making other people\u2019s ideas your own, and being diverse enough to find unexplored points of intersection between your various influences.<\/p>\n
If you fall in the category of people who want to write a book, learn an instrument, start a podcast, or do something creative, but you\u2019re wrestling with the fear of not being good enough or original enough, Steal Like An Artist is a great book for helping you get started. It\u2019s an easy read and there\u2019s no complex jargon to navigate, but Kleon offers some highly digestible and pragmatic insights for the beginning creator.Originality is how you uniquely put things together. You didn\u2019t create the alphabet, yet you have a unique way of using language that differs from your peers. When a musician composes a song, they don\u2019t feel pressured to invent the notes<\/b> on the piano or to create a new instrument. They can simply work with what\u2019s already there and put their own unique twist on it.The quest for originality is a distraction. It usually leads to a self-obsessive focus on saying what\u2019s never been said when all that really matters is saying what you believe, saying what you feel, and saying what you mean. When you first start doing this, you might not sound very original, but this process is precisely how you find your voice.<\/p>\n
We are the generation that struggles to see both the problems and the possibilities for progress because our worldview is dominated by an obsession over what the people on the other <\/i>political team are up to. We are the generation that refuses to acknowledge injustice because of a fear of how liberals will politicize the incident. We are the generation that refuses to acknowledge the beauty of self-empowerment because of a fear of how conservatives will abuse the message.We are the generation that has lost sight of truth because we\u2019re too busy defending ideologies to have time for exploring new ideas, questioning our assumptions, and ridding ourselves of self-defeating beliefs. We are the generation that will do everything it can to avoid admitting someone was right if he or she represents the wrong party. We are the generation that will go out of its way to gloss over the wrongdoings of others if he or she is part of our own in-group.<\/p>\n
[\/cl_text][\/cl_column][\/cl_row][cl_row row_type=”container-fluid” columns_gap=”0″ equal_height=”1″ css_style=”{‘padding-top’:’0px’,’padding-bottom’:’0px’,’border-top-width’:’1px’,’border-bottom-width’:’1px’}_-_json” background_color=”#fafafa” border_color=”#ebebeb”][cl_column width=”1\/2″ css_style=”{‘padding-top’:’0px’,’padding-bottom’:’0px’}_-_json”][cl_media image=”{‘uploading’:’false’,’date’:’Wed%20Mar%2029%202017%2012%3A09%3A53%20GMT%2B0200%20(W.%20Europe%20Daylight%20Time)’,’filename’:’quino-al-101314.jpg’,’menuOrder’:’0′,’uploadedTo’:’0′,’type’:’image’,’subtype’:’jpeg’,’url’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F03%2Fquino-al-101314.jpg’,’title’:’quino-al-101314′,’caption’:”,’alt’:”,’description’:”,’id’:’2991′,’link’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2F%3Fattachment_id%3D2991′,’author’:’1′,’name’:’quino-al-101314′,’status’:’inherit’,’modified’:’Wed%20Mar%2029%202017%2012%3A09%3A53%20GMT%2B0200%20(W.%20Europe%20Daylight%20Time)’,’mime’:’image%2Fjpeg’,’icon’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-includes%2Fimages%2Fmedia%2Fdefault.png’,’dateFormatted’:’March%2029%2C%202017′,’nonces’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’,’editLink’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D2991%26action%3Dedit’,’meta’:’false’,’authorName’:’admin’,’filesizeInBytes’:’92572′,’filesizeHumanReadable’:’90%20KB’,’height’:’1067′,’width’:’1600′,’orientation’:’landscape’,’sizes’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’,’compat’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’}_-_json” css_style=”{‘margin-top’:’0px’}_-_json”][\/cl_column][cl_column width=”1\/2″ css_style=”{‘padding-left’:’70px’,’padding-right’:’70px’}_-_json” vertical_align=”middle” horizontal_align=”middle”][cl_custom_heading typography=”custom_font” text_font_size=”34″ text_transform=”none” text_color=”#383838″ css_style=”{}_-_json” text_line_height=”42″]<\/p>\n
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If you\u2019re always wondering \u201cHow much time do I have before I can stop doing this?\u201d then you\u2019ll almost always come in second place to the person that wakes up in the morning eager to do it. It\u2019s not that passion has some sort of magic power to it, but you\u2019re just far more likely to put the work in, make interesting connections, and exercise follow-through if you adamantly believe in what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
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S<\/span>o many people get stuck on things like \u201cbeing a writer\u201d or \u201cbeing an entrepreneur\u201d and they never get around to getting things done because they\u2019re too busy trying to figure out if their ontological state gives them permission to do the thing they want to do.Forget about your state of being for a second. Forget about your identity for a moment Just do something. If you\u2019re interested in it right now, then that\u2019s enough to try it out. You\u2019ll find out the most valuable information about yourself not by naval gazing and analyzing your soul all day long, but by getting to know what the creative process actually feels like. The worst thing you can do is make your actions dependent on some rashly established axiomatic understanding of what your identity is.<\/p>\n Your sense of self will evolve and expand until the day you die. So you\u2019ll be waiting around forever if you insist on knowing who you are before beginning the work you feel compelled to do in the moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Work. Risk. Try. Create. Experiment. Test. Move. Do. Knowledge of self is the effect, not the cause of all these things.Who needs truth when you have talking points? What need is there for the individual to challenge himself or herself to make the world a freer place on a day-to-day basis when all you have to do is vote on election day?<\/p>\n We have it all figured out. Whatever our problems are, it\u2019s mostly because the \u201cwrong person\u201d is in office. We\u2019ll get it right this time around. We\u2019ll pay extra close attention to the debates this time around. We\u2019ll ask them tougher questions this time around. We\u2019ll encourage even more people to vote this time around. This time things will be different.There\u2019s always a savior. There\u2019s always a superman, or an angel from on high, or a fairy godmother who comes along and sets things properly a course. You\u2019ll see. I\u2019ll see. We\u2019ll all see.<\/p>\n [\/cl_text][\/cl_column][\/cl_row][cl_row css_style=”{‘padding-top’:’70px’,’padding-bottom’:’70px’,’border-top-width’:’1px’,’border-bottom-width’:’1px’}_-_json” background_color=”#fafafa” border_color=”#ebebeb”][cl_column css_style=”{‘padding-top’:’20px’,’padding-bottom’:’20px’}_-_json”][cl_blog blog_animation=”zoom-in” carousel=”1″ css_style=”{‘margin-top’:’35px’}_-_json”][\/cl_column][\/cl_row][cl_page_header title=”Black and White Media Artist” type=”modern” description=”” height=”600″ text_color=”light-text” background_image=”{‘uploading’:’false’,’date’:’1490799980000′,’filename’:’sergey-zolkin-192937.jpg’,’menuOrder’:’0′,’uploadedTo’:’0′,’type’:’image’,’subtype’:’jpeg’,’url’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F03%2Fsergey-zolkin-192937.jpg’,’title’:’sergey-zolkin-192937′,’caption’:”,’alt’:”,’description’:”,’id’:’3042′,’link’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2F%3Fattachment_id%3D3042′,’author’:’1′,’name’:’sergey-zolkin-192937′,’status’:’inherit’,’modified’:’1490799980000′,’mime’:’image%2Fjpeg’,’icon’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-includes%2Fimages%2Fmedia%2Fdefault.png’,’dateFormatted’:’March%2029%2C%202017′,’nonces’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’,’editLink’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D3042%26action%3Dedit’,’meta’:’false’,’authorName’:’admin’,’filesizeInBytes’:’103739′,’filesizeHumanReadable’:’101%20KB’,’height’:’1267′,’width’:’1900′,’orientation’:’landscape’,’sizes’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’,’compat’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’}_-_json” background_position=”center center” desc_font_weight=”600″ desc_line_height=”28″ typography=”custom_font” title_font_size=”64″ title_line_height=”74″ overlay=”color” overlay_color=”#1c1c1c”][cl_page_header title=”Black and White Media Artist” type=”modern” description=”” height=”600″ text_color=”light-text” background_image=”{‘uploading’:’false’,’date’:’1490799980000′,’filename’:’sergey-zolkin-192937.jpg’,’menuOrder’:’0′,’uploadedTo’:’0′,’type’:’image’,’subtype’:’jpeg’,’url’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F03%2Fsergey-zolkin-192937.jpg’,’title’:’sergey-zolkin-192937′,’caption’:”,’alt’:”,’description’:”,’id’:’3042′,’link’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2F%3Fattachment_id%3D3042′,’author’:’1′,’name’:’sergey-zolkin-192937′,’status’:’inherit’,’modified’:’1490799980000′,’mime’:’image%2Fjpeg’,’icon’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-includes%2Fimages%2Fmedia%2Fdefault.png’,’dateFormatted’:’March%2029%2C%202017′,’nonces’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’,’editLink’:’http%3A%2F%2Fcodeless.co%2Ffolie%2Fdefault%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D3042%26action%3Dedit’,’meta’:’false’,’authorName’:’admin’,’filesizeInBytes’:’103739′,’filesizeHumanReadable’:’101%20KB’,’height’:’1267′,’width’:’1900′,’orientation’:’landscape’,’sizes’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’,’compat’:’%5Bobject%20Object%5D’}_-_json” background_position=”center center” desc_font_weight=”600″ desc_line_height=”28″ typography=”custom_font” title_font_size=”64″ title_line_height=”74″ overlay=”color” overlay_color=”#1c1c1c”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Custom single post blog built with our page builder. 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