The Kite Runner is the first piece of work from Khaled Hosseini, published in 2003. (The year, my brother was born and I was 5 years old.) Story revolves around two friends from the same home but of ddifferent statures of Kabul, and how their lives evolve through the times of war, refuge, finding homes & lastly how the bond between the friends stay (I know this book has been ot a long time, but many haven’t read, so not spoiling it for them, incase they stumble here. I see you guys and I got you!)

Personal relationship with this book:

It took me a long time for me to finish this book as the story takes a huge, dark turn after what happens to the sweetest, humblest, and the kindest boy ever written.

I could not take it.

I left the book to be covered in dust in my shelf for months, till I read the part happening to Hassan, and what Amir does, and how that guilt he must always carry. But, what shocked me even more, was how morally kind was Hassan, to never bring it up and silently leave eventhough being it hard for their tribe of people elsewhere.

However, with the curiousity to finish this book and to know what happens further, I picked it up again, dusted it off and started reading again. What made me stop reading the book was only 50% of the tragedy that can happen to Hassan.

However, I am glad I finished this book.

It made me realize to live a good life, it takes strong will and might even be a short life, but a one worth living.

5 things I liked about this book:

1. The book was raw. How the scenes, environment was desccribed really pulls your imagination to make you believe you are in that scene with the characters watching silently, hearingg all around and noticing every details, without blinking. (Something that I am trying to learn in my writing.)

2. The characters, and how well they are written. From Hassan, Amir, to father, friends of father, from Soraya, to their father, and family, and lastly, the family of taxi driver, Farid who takes Amir around Afghanistan to find Sohrab.

3. The cultural showcase. The tribes, The food,, the attires, the class of people, and many more of different regions of Aghanistan.

4. The quick pace. (300+ page book, and it still feels rushed. Personal opinion.)

5. The open-ended redemption. Khaled didn’t give a happy ending but a possible beginning of a happy ending. This comes to say, that not everything needs closures and in writing especially, it can come to be open (what a relief as a writer😅. It leaves the pressure to make endings good). However, it depends on the stories too. This one needed no closure, per say, the ending what was given was enough to make us understand what happens next.

Favourites lines from the book:

1. For you, A thousand times over.

2. There is a way to be good again.

3. Better to get hurt by the truth, than be comforted with a lie.

4. The dessert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.

5. The morning sun to my yelda.

One line that is a known one but well placed is ‘Zindagi Migzara’ (life goes on).

Final take:

Definitely a page turner & an emotional ride. It really captured & brings the emotions buried deep to the top and flow heavily. This kind of stories fills me with satisfaction that after all that is bad happens,a hope of a small good is what keeps us alive and the same thing in this book, kept me hooked.

Keep going is a book where the author Austin Kleon shares 10 ways to stay creative, focused, and true to yourself. It is the third book in the Steal Like An Artist series.

This book was published on 2 April 2019. In his previous books, he shared how to steal like an artist, share ideas, and get discovered. But, the creative work is never linear. So, Austin Kleon wrote this book to help understand how a creative can keep going in the good times and bad.

I first heard about the book Show your work last year in lockdown from Ali Abdaal's channel. Later, I looked at him(Austin Kleon) online and found out that he has a 3 part book on being creative. That is when I purchased Steal Like An Artist book first. Later, I was interested in reading the rest two books of the series in paperback because of the illustrations and his style of writing that adds so much to our reading experience.

💡 If you want to read the summary of steal like an artist and Show Your Work to learn about how to steal ideas nobly and share them with an audience to get discovered. You can read it here: Steal Like An Artist Summary and Show Your Work Summary

🤔 Why did the writer write this book?

Whether you’re burned out, starting, starting over, or wildly successful, Keep Going will help you stay on the path to more creative work. (Source)

Austin shares that he wrote the book for himself. He believes the principles talked about here apply to all who are trying to sustain a meaningful and productive creative life.

📚 Book Notes and summary

Chapters of the book:

1. Every day is a groundhog day.

2. Build A Bliss Station

3. Forget The Noun, Do The Verb

4. Make Gifts

5. The Ordinary + Extra Attention = The Extraordinary

6. Slay The Art Monsters

7. You Are Allowed To Change your Mind

8. When In Doubt, Tidy Up

9. Demons Hate Fresh Air

10. Plant Your Garden

Every Day Is A Groundhog Day:

In this chapter, Austin tells us that the creative journey is not linear from A to B. It’s more like a loop or a spiral, in which you keep coming to a new starting point.

Every artist and person feels once we achieve success, the cycle stops and you can live the life you always wished for. But in reality, the journey doesn’t end after your success. Everyone will face the question of “What next?”

That is why keep going is a book about how we can stay creative in our journey in good times and bad.

The first thing is to take one day at a time. We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can control is what we spend our days on.

This point is explained using the movie Groundhog Day where the hero gets stuck in a time loop. He only has one day to make the best of it.

Hence, Every day is a groundhog day!

Relying on craft and routine is a lot less sexy than being an artistic genius. But it is an excellent strategy for not going insane — Christoph Niemann

Build A Bliss Station

Disconnect from the world to connect with yourself.

Silence and solitude are something we all look for in a day. You and I have different ways to find our solitude but the bliss station is that solitude. A place, time, or an activity where you forget about the news, the external problems, the social media, and all the other things just to be with yourself to do the things you like.

Joseph Campbell on bliss station -

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place for creative incubation. At first, you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something will eventually happen.

Austin Also shares a few more things in this chapter i.e.

1. Learn to say no

2. Airplane mode can be a way of life.

Forget The Noun, Do The Verb:

Let go of the thing you are trying to be(the noun), and focus on the actual work you need to be doing(the verb).

Most social media wants us to be the noun. You want to be called a name such as a writer, or a doctor, or an engineer, or an actor and it shows to other people. This is good if you are doing the verb according to the noun. Otherwise, you are just a person trying to fit in. Which according to me is a long road to a creative rut.

If you don’t want to spend days trying to fit in the noun and want to do the verb - Try to make your work more like play. You see when you make your work a play or a game. It is easy to not be bothered if you are the noun or if someone comes tap dancing in your room. You will just keep playing.

Great artists can retain this sense of playfulness throughout their careers. Art and the artists both suffer most when the artist gets too heavy and too focused on results.

Make Gifts

We used to have hobbies but now we have Side Hustles🤷‍♂️.

It is good to monetize some of your processes but not try to monetize every bit of it. Be sure that there’s at least a tiny part of you that is off-limits to the marketplace.

The most important learning from this chapter for me was this -

If you want maximum artistic freedom, keep your overhead low. A free creative life is not about living within your means, it’s about living below your means.

Do what you love + low overhead = A good life.

The Ordinary + Extra Attention = The Extraordinary

It is easy to assume that if only you could trade your ordinary life for a new one, all your problems would be solved. It is wishful thinking, says Austin Kleon.

You do not need to have an extraordinary life to make extraordinary work. Everything you need to make extraordinary art can be found in your everyday life.

Your attention is one of the most valuable things. Everybody wants it. Protecting it and pointing it in the right direction will help in bringing out extraordinary work.

Slay The Art Monsters

Art is for life, not the other way around.

There is a typical category of artists that have been popularized by us from way back where the artist is a cheater, an abuser, an absent parent, an addict, and much more. But once he does his artwork and everybody loves him. These types of artists are going away and it is for the good. We don’t need such artists to have meaningful art.

Simply put Art is supposed to make our lives better. Austin says the world doesn’t necessarily need great artists. It needs more decent human beings. This is what we must try to be.

You Are Allowed To Change Your Mind

If you have never changed your mind about something, pinch yourself; you may be dead.

If you think how can I change my course of action when I said I am going to do it. You can change your mind. It is only after you try a couple of things you will truly find what you want to do.

Thinking requires an environment in which you can try out all sorts of ideas and not be judged for them. To change your mind, you need a good place to have some bad ideas.

The internet is no longer a safe place for that - Thanks to social media. Here are a few ways you can test out your ideas first -

1. Go Offline - try it out in your notes, in your bliss station, in your Journal. It is no one but you. Once you feel comfortable you can move it to people online or on social media.

2. Interact with Like hearted - We are building communities for people who are like-minded but this will decrease the opportunity for us to change. Although it is comforting at first to be around like-minded. After a while, it will become boring.
   Instead try having conversations with like-hearted people who intend to have the same mission as yours but are in different fields, and share different perspectives.

3. Look into the past - We have access to minds of all ages now (Thanks to the Internet). Why not look for ideas, inspirations, and perspectives of people from our past.

The Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca said -

If you read old books, you get to add all the years the author lived to your life. We are excluded from no age, but we have access to them all. Why not turn from this brief and transient period and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the past, which is limitless and eternal and can be shared with better men than we?

When in doubt Tidy Up:

Keep your tools organized and your materials messy - John T. Unger

He further explains - Keep your tools very organized so you can find them when needed. If you cant find it at the right time, it can blow your day, or your inspiration to do the work anymore.

Also, when you are not feeling inspired or motivated to do the creative work. You can tidy up your space, and do the chores around the house. It is said to be productive procrastination, nothing else. When you clean your house when not motivated, you will be happy you did the cleaning when you are ready to work as you will have that checked from the todo.😄

Tidying up also means mentally. What better way than to have a good sleep. A nap flushes the thoughts and gives you a fresh start. So, when in doubt, tidy up.

Demons Hate Fresh Air:

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow - Henry David Thoreau

People want you to be hooked to the screens and give them your attention. That can only mean that you are bombarded with what others tell you.

I agree that our thinking forms from the conversations we have with others. But, the simple form of exercise that a lot of people forget is to take a walk.

Walking has lots of health benefits. It has some connection with how synapses in our brain are formed. You can check out more about why walking is better for thinking and clearing your mind here:

Melvin RajMelvin Raj

Plant Your Garden:

This chapter is about how every day is a potential seed that we can grow and plant in our garden.

Gardening requires so much patience and attention, and gardeners have a unique sense of time and perspective.

This is why when we think of life as a garden and you as a gardener - we have to be patient with ourselves and give ourselves some time.

Worry about things that are worth worrying about.

Whenever life gets overwhelming, Austin says, try your best to fill them in ways that you get a little closer to where you want to be. Go easy on yourself and take your time. Worry less about being a great artist and worry more about being a good human who makes art.

There is a good reference from the memoir Downhill All The Way, by Leonard Woolf. While the months leading to world war-II were hopelessly and helplessly watching the events unfold. He said one of the most horrible things was to listen to Hitler’s rant.

So, one afternoon, he was planting purple irises in the orchard under an apple tree. When they called in to listen to Hitler’s rant, Leonard said -

“I shan’t come! I am planting iris. They will be flowering long after Hitler is dead”.

In the memoir, Leonard noted that 21 years after Hitler committed suicide, few of those purple iris bloomed.

That is what Austin likes to say. Plant things that will live longer than your life.

Leave things better than you found them.

There is art left to be made in this world - Anthony Bourdain

🛒 Where can you buy the book?

This book is available on amazon. You can find the links below:

1. Keep Going (Paperback)

2. Show Your Work + Keep Going (Paperback)

3. Steal Like An Artist + Keep Going (Paperback)

4. Audiobook Trilogy - One month Free Audible Subscription with this link

You can find more of the work from Austin Kleon here. I highly recommend checking out his work. He has a newsletter where every Friday since 2013🤯🤯🤯, he has been sending out 10 things worth sharing with his subscribers and I love the fact that he must be having a collection of a lot of things he has shared. I read more about his work online from anywhere possible and you must as well.  This summary is one of my attempts to let you know about this amazing book and the writer.

Subscribe to his newsletter where in the free version he shares 10 things from the week that are worth sharing. I promise you will find interesting reads, every week. I am subscribed to this newsletter and I enjoy this newsletter a lot.

Austin Kleon

🔚 Conclusion:

The book Keep Going is an amazing read for someone who is starting because it gives you great advice on how to keep doing things you love for a long time. The most important thing we all lack nowadays is the ability to stick to something because we have easy access to almost everything.

Also, the author suggests you take advice that you can use and leave the rest.

I would one hundred percent recommend reading this book and his previous books, Steal Like An Artist and Show Your Work, before starting your creative journey. This book needs to be read more than once.

Thank you for reading.

Show your work is a book written by Austin Kleon which was originally published on 6 March 2014. This book is a follow up to the book ‘Steal Like An Artist’ where he writes about how we all can “steal” in a noble way while being creative. In this book, Austin Kleon shares his ideas on how one can show their work and share their work online even though some people hate the idea of self-promotion.

I first heard the book Show your work by the same author last year in lockdown from Ali Abdaal's channel. I was looking about him(Austin Kleon) online and then found out that he has a 3 part book on being creative. That is when I purchased Steal Like An Artist book first. After that, I was interested in reading the rest two books of the series in paperback because of the illustrations and his style of writing which adds so much to our reading experience.

💡 If you want to read the summary of steal like an artist to learn more about the book before deciding to purchase and read it. You can read it here: Steal Like An Artist Summary

🤔 Why did the writer write this book?

This book is written as a follow-up to the book Steal Like An Artist and it makes sense because think about it. If you have an idea, what would you like to do? You would like to share it with someone right!!!!

Austin Kleon describes the book as -

A book for people who hate the very idea of self-promotion, Show Your Work! is the follow-up to my New York Times the bestselling guide to creativity, Steal Like An Artist. If Steal Like An Artist was a book about stealing influence from others, Show Your Work is about influencing others by letting them steal from you.

🤷‍♀️ What is the book about?

This book is a realistic way of sharing your work with the world. This book breaks all the misnomers around self-promotion and gives you 10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered.

This book will teach you how to be sharing your work, how not to be sharing your work, and lastly, how long should you be sharing your work (Hint: it’s until the day you decide to stop being creative).

Most people who first take the book wonder whether this book will be any good because you are not a creative person. Well, I would ask you to take it home and read it! because this book although shares strong facts for creatives, it does applies to anyone to live a better life.

📚 Book Notes and summary

You know the first page after the table of content or index is this quote -

For Artists, the great problem to solve is how to get oneself noticed - Honoré De Balzac

This book tries to solve the exact problem many artists and creatives face which is how to get oneself noticed. Austin shares his knowledge of sharing your work in 10 ways. Each way brings out one different aspect of sharing ideas and more.

1. You Don’t Have To Be A Genius

2. Think Process, Not Product

3. Share Something Small Every Day

4. Open Up The Cabinets Of Curiosities

5. Tell Good Stories

6. Teach What You Know

7. Don’t Turn Into Human Spam

8. Learn To Take A Punch

9. Sell Out

10. Stick Around

The Internet has made a very interesting way for people to work and be more open about their Journey and this is what Author Austin Kleon talks about in these 10 points. He likes to believe that the online presence is important because you don’t find an audience for your work. They Find You.

You Don’t Have To Be A Genius:

The whole idea that people who are genius at something can only share something or contribute something to others is gone. If you think about what I possibly have to share - You are not alone and here is a simple way - Find Your Scenius.

Scenius means being part of a group of people sharing the same collective ideas. It can be your reading clubs, your group of friends who talk about Web3, or someone interested in a particular way of living that will make them feel creative. Thanks to the Internet, you don’t have to look around to find these Scenius. it is available in the form of forums, and groups on Social media.

You can start by learning one new thing capturing that idea and then adding your ideas along with it as a thought experiment.

There is this old saying that you can learn from an amateur than from a master.

Austin explains that a beginner in the process of doing things unprofessionally will make a discovery.

Talk about things you love. Your voice will follow.

Think Process, Not Product:

The process is always messy which is the reason why most viewers need the result, the finished product. Whereas the process is for you and you alone. It is your discoveries of doing the work and finding new insights, making mistakes, that shape the artwork that excites you. So, if you share your process, you will form an ongoing connection with people which indirectly moves our product.

Become a documentarian of your work. Whatever the nature of your work is, there is an art to what you do and there are people who would be interested only if you present it in the right way.

Share Something Small Every Day:

Sharing something small every day is just this one piece of advice that resonated with me:

If you’re in the very early stages, share your influences and what is inspiring you. If you are in the middle, write about what you learned and how you implemented it. If you have tons of work already in the world, share the interactions of people with your work and the reports.

Also,

Don’t let sharing your work take precedence over actually doing your work.

Another piece of information that he shares in this book which completely makes sense if you are someone who takes notes is -

The thing about Keeping notebooks is that you have to revisit them to make the most out of them. This line hit me hard because I always try to write notes so I can share some of the best in my newsletter and also have a place to refer but never do that. It is not until I go back and link these that I find patterns and new ideas.

Now, you might be wondering where can you share your small pieces of work every day.

The author suggests building a domain on the internet. If you register for a www.[yourname].com and share your smallest learnings every day. In the future, it will help you have enough ideas under your belt to be able to look back and see what you have learned.

Open Up Your Cabinet Of Curiosities:

In the 16th and 17th century Europe, it was fashionable to have a wonder chamber or a cabinet of curiosities, that is a room filled with rare and remarkable objects subjective to them.

Similarly, we can even have our cabinet of curiosities. It can be our favorite books, movies, novels, music, artists, places we have been, places we want to be, and people we met. This will encourage you to write about the things you care about.

Most people see that reading and writing as the opposite ends of the same spectrum but your reading feeds your writing.

So, having a place where you share your influences, your travel, your thoughts, and more will open up the curiosities of others and yourself.

He also mentions that if you find things you genuinely enjoy, don’t let anyone else make you feel bad about it. Celebrate them.

When being open about your interests and influences Credit is always due. In the internet age, attributing others’ work is the only way people can look for more of their work and explore their curiosity.

Attribution is all about providing context for what you are sharing.

Don’t share things you can’t properly credit. Find the right credit or don’t share.

This line resonated a lot from this segment because, in my newsletter, I share the interesting content I have come across in the week, and sometimes, I don’t find the right credit. I don’t know where to look for next to learn more about.

So, I practice crediting properly in my newsletter. If you are a reader, you must be seeing the links to the writer, the tweeter, and the video creator. It is only to give you a place to explore.

Tell Good Stories:

When shown an object or a project, people assess it based on how much they like it, and how valuable it is. This all can be deeply affected by what you tell them about it.

Words Matter. We all want to know where things came from, how they are made, and who made them. Unknowing we tend to find the answer to these not only in books but in all the products we see and like.

So, telling a good story will matter when showing your work. It may be a finished or unfinished story always keep the audience in mind. Value your audience’s time. Learn to speak. Learn to Write.

Another thing I took from this segment is how he mentions talking about yourself at parties. Don’t be shy to say you do this. So, from now on, if anyone asks I will be telling them I am a writer while working full time. It should be easy to understand people what you do.

Teach What You Know:

This is simple. I wrote my notes from this segment into the following points:

1. Think about what you can share from your process that would inform people you are trying to reach.

2. The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it.

3. Make people better at something they want to be better at.

4. Create Tutorials and take people step by step through part of your process

5. Use Pictures, words, videos, and inspirations you find along the way.

These points sum up how you can even break down your creative work and find relevant resources to share with your audience.

Don’t Turn Into Human Spam:

In the spectrum of creating and sharing with people, be a contributor, a curator, and a great open node rather than being all about you.

Share other people’s work, and appreciate them openly if you like their work. If you want fans. Be a fan first. In other words, if you want to be interesting be interested in others' work as much as yours.

While sharing such works of people you like, you will come across people who share the same interests as you and share a similar mission to yours. Keep such people as close to you as possible.

Learn To Take A Punch:

When you put out your work, you have to be ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly.

You have to be ready to take in any comments that come your way.

Whose feedback do you care about then?

It should be from the people who share the same mission as yours. It should be from people who care about you and your work.

The best way to take a punch is:

1. Relax and breathe: Fear is often the imagination taking the wrong turn

2. Strengthen your neck: The more criticism you take, the more you realize it can’t hurt you.

3. Roll with the punches: You can’t control what sort of criticism you get, but you can control how you react to it.

4. Protect your vulnerable areas: Keep the work that you feel is too close or too sensitive. Keep it hidden.

5. Keep your balance: You have to remember that your work is something you do, not who you are.

Sell Out:

Some of the most meaningful and cherished work was made for money. This is the thing you need to understand. No work can be done for free. If you have your friends win something will you be happy for them or will you be removing them from your friends list?

Be proud of your friends' work as much as your success.

Everybody says they want the artists to make money but when they do. Everybody hates them for it. It’s just the way it is.

Think about it. If you see a struggling actor make it big. Are you genuinely happy for that actor or call him lucky?

If you want to find out how people can be part of your sell-out. Be open about your process, connect with your audience, and ask them to support you at the end. If you have a website, add a donation button. Similar to musicians passing around the hat during the concert. It is for people who enjoy your work.

😋 I do have a donation button in case you are looking to buy me a coffee, books, or better equipment 😜 - Hint: it’s here and on the footer named “Donation”

In this section, he also recommends everyone that everyone must keep a mailing list. He explains the most boring and utilitarian technologies are the ones that stick the longest. Email is one such technology. I recently shared some notes from Benedict Evans in my newsletter.  The better reason is if you are part of it, you definitely have to go through the trouble of deleting the contact.

Some important points to remember while building a mailing list:

1. Be clear about what they can expect

2. Let them know the frequency by which the mail will be reaching their inbox.(daily, weekly, monthly, infrequent)

3. Lastly, never add someone’s email address without their permission.

Keeping yourself busy is an absolute way to constantly adapt to change as Walt Disney says -

We don’t make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies.

The last thing he talked about in this section is that there will be a switch from saying yes to opportunities to saying no. This is not because of the work you do, but to pay for the work you do. To understand better, the biggest problem of success is that the world conspires to stop you from doing the thing that you usually do.

The point to remember is You just have to be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done.

Stick Around:

These words from Orson Welles -

If you want a happy ending, it depends on where you stop your story.

You can’t be happy with being a master. You will look for things to be an amateur. So, keep your curiosities open, and don’t be afraid to learn a lot of things.

Look for something new to learn, and when you find it. Learn it out in the open. Document your progress and share as you go so that others can learn along with you.

Show your work and when the right people come along they will have a lot to show you as well.

Stick around for a step longer, if you don’t feel like it. If you do not like the topic you are learning for a month, stick around for a week more before you completely confiscate it and not learn it again.

✒ My Top 5 Quotes

This book has amazing quotes from other creators but here are 5 quotes that are worth reading and re-reading:

In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen - Brené Brown

Become a documentarian

If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive - Kenneth Goldsmith

Don’t share things you can’t properly credit. Find the right credit or don’t share

Feel free to take what you can use, and leave the rest. There are no rules.

🛒 Where can you buy the book?

This book is available on Amazon for which you can find the links below:

1. Show You Work (Paperback) - Amazon

2. Show Your Work And Keep Going (Paperback) - Amazon

3. Steal Like An Artist (Paperback) - Amazon

4. Audiobook Trilogy - One month Free Audible Subscription with this link

You can find more of the work from Austin Kleon here. I highly recommend checking out his work. He has a newsletter where every Friday since 2013🤯🤯🤯, he has been sending out 10 things worth sharing with his subscribers and I love the collection he must be having. I read more about his work online from anywhere possible and you must as well.  This summary is one of my attempts to let you know about this amazing book and the writer.

Austin KleonBookpeople

Subscribe to his newsletter wherein the free version he shares 10 things from the week that are worth sharing. Subscribe below. I promise you will find interesting reads, every week. I am subscribed to this newsletter and I enjoy this newsletter a lot.

Austin Kleon

🔚 Conclusion:

This book is a great read for someone who is second-guessing themselves on whether to take the step of sharing their work. It is focused on creators but not every work needs some creativity.

As the author suggests take advice that you can use and leave the rest.

I would one hundred percent recommend reading this book and the previous book Steal Like An Artist before starting your creative journey. This is a book that needs to be read at least once and even more if you are looking for ways to be creative.

Thank you for reading.

It is a book written by Austin Kleon on 28th February 2012.

It's been 10 years since the book has been published and I first heard the book Show your work by the same author last year in lockdown from Ali Abdaal's channel. I was looking about him online and then found out that he has a 3 part book on being creative. That is why I purchased this book first. I was waiting to read the book for a year (It took a year because I was not reading a lot and was always pushing back the books to read). Finally, last month I ordered the book and read it. That is only after listening to the Audio trilogy of Steal Like An Artist first. I loved the book so much, that I ordered it to be read in paperback because Austin Kleon, is a writer who draws and the paperback has some of his work printed and I wanted to have those to refer to in the future.

How did Austin get the inspiration for the book?

I would say read the blog post for the 10th anniversary of the book, where he writes how he got started in writing the book and how a speech at a university turned into a book within months.

Austin KleonAustin Kleon

What is the Book about?  

This book is about how to be creative and have something in your life that gives you happiness.

This book will show you how to be stealing ideas from others in a noble way and adding your ideas.

If you ever thought of starting something be it as a hobby. Read this book before starting to have a proper way to have sustaining hobbies.

The ideas shared in the book apply to anyone who is trying to have some creative aspect added to their personal and professional life.

Book Notes and Summaries:

The book starts with these lines -

For Boom — whenever Boom gets here

This can mean many things, but author was talking about his first born son.

1. Steal Like An Artist:
   
   All creative work builds on something that has been made before. Nothing in the world is completely original. Good artists understand that nothing comes from nowhere. They practice every day taking inspiration from things they are fond of or from work they appreciate and build upon those things.
   
   Every new idea is a mashup of one or more previous ideas. Always remember that 1 +1 = 3 in the creative world.
   I broke it down as 1 for the other idea, 2 for your ideas, and three for people who might understand the new thing differently (we can call it 'unknown').
   
   Save your thefts for later - You need to have lots of little pieces of work from others that you can share. This comes in handy when you want to make a point or when you feel uninspired to look up and re-write them in your way.
   
   

2. Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started:
   
   Fake it 'til you make it - this phrase can be read in two ways:
   
   Pretend to be something you are not until you are; or
   
   Pretend to be making something until you make something.
   
   This reminds me of the saying -
   Be a warrior in a garden not the gardener in a war.
   
    

3. Write The Book You Want To Read:
   
   The rule is simple - Write about things you want to read, do the art you want to see, build products you want to use, and finally, do the work you want to see done.
   
   

4. Use Your Hands:
   
   You need to find a way to bring your body to move. Take a walk, start moving, get your hands dirty with paint, and have two desks to be as far from screens as possible when you don't feel like doing it.
   
   The computer is really good for editing and typing faster but it also has the option to hit the delete key whenever you make a mistake. Let the mistakes happen, you will observe yourselves change and make it right the next time.
   
   Use your hands.
   
   

5. Side Projects And Hobbies Are Important:
   
   Practice productive procrastination - meaning doing things that you can pick up as a hobby to procrastinate.
   
   Intentionally take time to be bored. Some of the best work comes from being bored.
   
   

6. The Secret:
   
   Do Good Work And Share It With People -
   
   You have to enjoy your obscurity. Once you start gaining people's attention, you can't experiment a lot. There may be a few downsides. So, enjoy the obscurity people are generally too busy and they don't care about your work unless it's good.
   
   You will get there, but in the meantime try out different things, experiment, start multiple projects, and stick to what works.
   
   

7. Geography Is No Longer Our Master:
   
   If you feel you are not in the world you live in, you can build your world where you are. Surround yourself with books and music you love. Build cool things that you like, tape them up on a wall, and make your paradise.
   
   Surround yourself with interesting people from all fields of work. You will realize how connected everything is. You can share your identified points with the world. You need to find a place that feeds you  — creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally.
   
   

8. Be Nice:  
   
   The World Is A Small Town -
   
   You need to be nice to people around you. If you like their work, be appreciative and show your support however small the effort might seem. Don't feed on the negative things. The most important thing is you show appreciation without any expectation in return. It may be online or offline.
   
   Write fan letters. It may not be an email, but it can be Dm's on Instagram or Twitter. Write a blog about the things you learned from them and link to them. Make a video solving a problem they have and maybe they will see but the important thing is to make them.
   
   Lastly, get comfortable with being misunderstood or ignored. The cheeky little trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.
   
   

9. Be Boring:
   
   It's The Only Way To Get Work Done.
   
   Take care of yourself. The whole image of leaving the job to pursue the life you want is being played out for too long and I see a little change where people are investing a lot more time in taking care of themselves. Building better relationships with health, money, and people.
   
   Stay out of debt. Learn about money as soon as you can. Live within your means. Save as much as you can. Keep your day job until you have made enough to live off things you do what you truly love. A job can offer connection with people and a monthly stable money flow to run your family. Spend quality time with your family.
   
   

10. Creativity Is Subtraction:
    
    Choose what to leave out. Figuring out what to leave out will get you way ahead. Placing constraints can bring you back into the creative zone. When it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom. Don't make excuses instead you can build something with what you have. Limitations can bring in better innovations you may have never thought about.
    
    

Creativity is not the things that we choose to put in, it's the things we choose to leave out.  

Where Can You Buy the Book?

This book has a paperback version - here

This book is also available in the audio version as a trilogy with other books from Austin Kleon. Check it out - here

You can find more of the work from Austin Kleon here. I highly recommend checking out his work. He has a newsletter where every Friday since 2013🤯🤯🤯, he has been sending out 10 things worth sharing with his subscribers and I love the collection he must be having. I read more about his work online from anywhere possible and you must as well.

This summary is one of my attempts to let you know about this amazing book and its writer - Austin Kleon.

Summary:

Atomic Habits is James Clear's years of blog posts in one book. This book explains how basically improving ourselves by 1 percent every day results in a significant increase in our productivity but never we eyeing for the end goal never count those small changes as progress.

James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.

Atomic Habits is a small change every day, towards building systems that help in achieving our goals. James mentions there are 4 laws of behavior change that we can make use of to create good habits and break the bad ones. He mentions that any habit is made of -

1. Cue

2. Craving

3. Response

4. Reward

By making our behavior change according to these components, the habits fall into place thus resulting in building better systems that ultimately make a good habit and break a bad one.

Notes:

What are habits?

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

James goes on to explain how 1 percent of improvement statistically on any topic of interest is exceptional as we gain 37% gain yearly.

The Habit loop helps us keep hitting us with small rewards that we tend to stay in the game longer.

He even mentions how habits and systems' main goal is not to win at a game. It is to continue playing the game. (after reading and listening, I wondered about every single habit I broke because I thought the goal was achieved hence was the goal met. Whereas, if I had thought to continue working on the same habit over and over, it would have been even more beneficial now.)

There are 4 laws of behavior change that we can use to create good habits and break the bad ones.

A single habit is made of a cue, craving, response, and reward. These components are formed according to the 4 laws of behavior change:

Make it obvious: The habit needs to be done so many times that after a while you don't apply your mind at all. For example, making the bed every day as soon as you wake up, will at some point have an automatic effect on you one day without your knowledge you will make the bed even when you are half asleep.

He also talks about the plateau of latent potential. which means that our mind always assumes growth to be linear and we see progress in a straight line as soon as we start a habit but in reality, it is a slow increase in time, compounding growth that we actually don't understand.

The area between the point from the habit starts to the point where we cross our linear projectile assumption is called the Valley of Disappointment, which means that the growth is invisible but the growth is present. The growth is just being stored.

Make it attractive: Making it attractive can be basically summed up with this one line from the book -

It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfilment of it—that gets us to take action. The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike.

Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.

The 1st Law of Behavior Change is make it obvious.

Make it easy: Making it easy is making your process easy to perform the habit you want to progress on. For example,

1. If you want to exercise daily, having what you want to do today at the start of the day is the way to decide your habit.

2. If you are a writer, have a place for yourself to write every day to become a better writer.

Make it immediately satisfying: Our brain rewards immediate returns so it’s good to come up with something simple that brings us joy right after we perform our habit.

Over the long run, however, the real reason you fail to stick with habits is that your self-image gets in the way. This is why you can’t get too attached to one version of your identity. Progress requires unlearning. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.

Your identity emerges out of your habits. You are not born with preset beliefs. Every belief, including those about yourself, is learned and conditioned through experience.

Whatever your identity is right now, you only believe it because you have proof of it. If you go to church every Sunday for twenty years, you have evidence that you are religious. If you study biology for one hour every night, you have evidence that you are studious. If you go to the gym even when it’s snowing, you have evidence that you are committed to fitness. The more evidence you have for a belief, the more strongly you will believe it.

This is a gradual evolution. We do not change by snapping our fingers and deciding to be someone entirely new. We change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit. We are continually undergoing microevolution of the self.

Each habit is like a suggestion: “Hey, maybe this is who I am.” If you finish a book, then perhaps you are the type of person who likes reading. If you go to the gym, then perhaps you are the type of person who likes exercise. If you practice playing the guitar, perhaps you are the type of person who likes music.

Favorite Quotes:

Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”

“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.”

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”

Final Takeaways:

This book is a collection/best guides from a lot of writings for his newsletter.

James Clear had been writing on the internet for more than 3 years before he published this book. He says the things that make sense and are scientifically proven methods to improve the habits you want to create.

Atomic Habits is the most comprehensive and practical guide on how to create good habits, break bad ones, and get 1 percent better every day.

I do not believe you will find a more actionable book on the subject of habits and improvement.

If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system.

Bad habits repeat themselves not because you don’t want to change but because you have the wrong system for change. This is one of the core philosophies of Atomic Habits: You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. In this book, you’ll get a proven plan that can take you to new heights.

You can purchase the Atomic Habits hardcopy from here and get started on living 1 percent better every day.

Hey friends, everybody has their problems but most of the issues we face daily are because of money. Money runs the entire economy and understanding the money is the best bet you can make to have a peaceful life.

About The Author:

Morgan Housel is a partner at The Collaborative Fund and a former columnist at The Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal. Morgan is a holder of many awards in Financial Journalism and the Psychology of Money is the third book published on September 8, 2020.

Summary:

Housel’s primary focus is the relationship between people and money, emphasizing the human variable of the equation. “To grasp why people bury themselves in debt you don’t need to study interest rates; you need to study the history of greed, insecurity, and optimism.”In the book, Housel explores each human behavior or attitude towards money with a short story or example.

Highlights:

There are many good points in the book, which might give a healthy perspective on how to behave or rather act with your money. Morgan says this book’s premise is that doing well with money has little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave. Here are some highlights from the book which struck a chord with me:

• Everyone has a unique idea of how the world works. This worldview is influenced by a unique set of circumstances, values, and external influences.

• No amount of studying or open-mindedness can genuinely recreate the power of fear and uncertainty.

• Outcomes are determined by more than effort. Luck and risk often figure prominently in the individual outcome

• Luck and risk are both the reality that every outcome in life is guided by forces other than individual effort…they both happen because the world is too complex to allow 100% of your actions to dictate 100% of your outcomes.

• Getting money and keeping money are entirely different things and require entirely different mindsets and strategies.

• When you see someone driving a nice car, you rarely think, ‘Wow, the guy driving that car is cool.’ Instead, you think, ‘Wow, if I had that car people would think I’m cool.’ Subconscious or not, this is how people think.

• Housel reminds us that when people say they want to be millionaires, what it really means is that they want to spend a million dollars.

• Spending a million dollars is “literally the opposite of being a millionaire.”

• Your savings rate is more important than your income or investment returns.

• “The flexibility and control over your time is an unseen return on wealth.”

• The best plan is to plan for things to not go according to plan.

• Minimize the impact of failure by avoiding single points of failure.

• Accept the reality that individuals are prone to change. What matters to you today, may be viewed as inconsequential in a decade.

• When you invest in the long term, you need to be willing to accept the short-term price of market fluctuations.

• Growth is driven by compounding, which always takes time. Destruction is driven by single points of failure, which can happen in seconds, and loss of confidence can happen in an instant.

• Everyone has an incomplete view of the world. But we form a complete narrative to fill in the gaps.

These points actually when taken the time to understand will make a lot more sense. The more examples you read from the book the clearer you get with the points. In the last chapter (Confessions), Housel highlights some of his financial behaviors and beliefs:

• Independence drives all of Housel’s financial decisions.

• Maintains 20% of his assets in cash (outside of the value of his primary home). He does this to maintain a safety net and to avoid being forced to sell his stock market investments in an emergency.

• Three key elements of Housel’s approach: are a high savings rate, patience, and long-term optimism.

Most of the examples and concepts in the book are related to American history but we can learn the core concepts from the book no matter where we are reading from. Though the reference is not understandable; it shapes the view of how money is viewed in another country and our country. We can figure out where we are wrong and adjust to do the right thing. We can improve on those.

Takeaways:

This book is an excellent guide on how money must be treated and how we must act based on the money we tend to accumulate.

If I have to give you one favorite quote from this book, then this will be it:

The amount of savings we do matters more than the profit, investment strategies, and salary gains we obtain.  

You can grab the hard copy from here: The Psychology Of Money.

You can read more of Morgan's work on his blog: Collaborative Fund.