The Creative Act: A Way of Being

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin is the bible for creativity. Rick Rubin is a record producer and co-founder of Def Jam Recordings. He details what art is, how it is made, and the circumstances that produce the best art. His insights are very general and can be applied to most creative fields. It’s hard to describe the uniqueness of this book and what makes it so special. It is unlike most things that I’ve read.

Rubin suggests that all people are creative even if they don’t believe they are. Each person creates themselves and the reality that they live in. Creativity is not just creating traditional artwork like sculptures or paintings but a way of living.

My favorite part of Rubin’s book was his interpretation of how creative projects come to be. The Source is everything around us that is capable of inspiring us. Each person has a limited and unique awareness of everything around them. Their surroundings are filtered based on who they are as a person. What they’ve learned to value and what’s most relevant to them. Everything they let through their filter fills their vessel. People are all vessels, each unique.  

One quote in this section of the book especially resonated with me:

“Tomorrow presents another opportunity for awareness, but it’s never an opportunity for the same awareness.”

Another section titled “The Prism of Self” stood out to me. People are dynamic. They not only change over time but can be different people at the same time. What environment someone is in, how much sleep they got last night, who told them good morning, and other factors determine who someone is at that exact second. Because someone can be so much at the same time people should be thought of as prisms containing all that they are. Light shined through them may come out differently depending on how they are positioned at a given moment.

The creative process where a work is created seemed to parallel models I’ve seen used in the design space. When inspired by a seed, creators are supposed to expand on that idea and feed the inspiration to find what their work should be. Once they discover their work, they enter the crafting stage where they whittle down their idea until it’s complete. I made a visualization depicting the product that reminds me of the double-diamond method of product development.

My biggest disagreement with Rubin is his belief that all motivation and approval for a creative piece should come from oneself. The opinions and values of others should not be taken into consideration when creating art. I believe this to a degree. I do not work on something I do not believe in or release something I am not proud of. However, I give weight to how my work might affect others. I do not want to put something into the world that I know will harm someone else. Art should not be intentionally destructive. Of course, all pieces of art will inevitably have a negative impact on some but that is unavoidable. I am referring to when an artist does something with negative intent. This is a rule I try to avoid breaking.

This book had a very unique structure which made it difficult to create a report for. I decided to stick to some of the bigger ideas that stuck with me. I believe I will find myself coming back to this text a lot in the future when working on my passion projects. I wasn’t kidding when I said it was the bible for creativity.