41 pages • 1 hour read
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
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Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Side Projects and Hobbies are Important.”
Kleon states that having many side projects enables artists to move between them productively without becoming burnt out on a single idea. The ideas that feel like play or side projects often end up being “the good stuff” (65). Engaging in boring, rote activities like dishwashing can allow the mind to focus and make creative breakthroughs.
He argues that artists should never feel like they must “throw any of [themselves] away” (68). Ignoring one creative passion for the sake of another can create “phantom limb pain” (71). Keeping one’s hobbies not for money or recognition but just because they make one happy is “regenerative.”
Chapter 5 Analysis
This chapter seeks to reframe how people might think they need to approach their creative process. Rather than having a creative practice that is singularly focused, Kleon argues that having a wide creative practice can be beneficial to artistic creation.
This chapter pairs conceptually with the preceding chapter where the concept of non-digital activity and creation as “play” rather than “work” was introduced. In this chapter, he offers more strategies that can help with The Difference Between Work and Play. He encourages “productive procrastination,” by having “a lot of projects going at once so you can bounce between them” (65).
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