The Creative Act by Rick Rubin is a book that has been on my radar for a while. Since I’ve been scratching my creative itch lately, I decided to read it to see what it was all about. It ended up being one the best books I’ve ever read. It spoke directly to my soul. I made a highlight or left a note on almost every page.
The book opens by dispelling the narrative that art is restricted to what we traditionally consider to be art, such as making music or painting. Rather, it argues that creativity is a universal property of human nature. Creativity is certainly expressed through paint and song, but it just as well could be expressed through a home-cooked meal, a gift, or a new business. Creativity is the act of bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before. Even if we don’t do anything at all and just be, we are still creating our version of reality through our unique filter of sensory experience. Being creative is more than an activity. It is a fundamental aspect of the human spirit. Just as birds fly and fish swim, humans create.
With this spiritual foundation in place, the book proceeds to examine how to cultivate a creative way of being in our lives.
Tuning in is a critical component for cultivating creativity. The universe is buzzing with energetic potential that searches for a path through which it can be expressed. Humans are conduits that facilitate the manifestation of this potential into the physical world. We may think that ideas are our own, but they are really downloads from the larger creative force that surrounds us; initial seeds that have sprouted into our consciousness. This is why it is not uncommon for an idea that you have to be expressed by someone else if you choose not to bring it to life. The other person didn’t steal your idea; the idea’s time has come. The idea re-routed around you and found another path to manifestation.
How can we better tune in? Two ways: leveling up our taste and creating space.
We need to be selective of what information we let into our lives. If our bodies are the food we ingest, our minds are the information we consume. Rather than doom-scroll social media, read a book. Better yet, read classic literature. And don’t just read to read, read to understand and to form critical opinions.
To let creative inspiration in, we need to create space for it. There are two high level ways to do this, both involving filters. The first is to use a highly restrictive external filter. The second is to use a minimally restrictive internal filter, or perhaps even no internal filter at all.
Our external filter controls the information that we receive from the outside world. Our high volume, low quality information culture fills our stream of consciousness with low fidelity noise that drowns out any signal that would otherwise be picked up by our creative antennae. Filtering out sources of external noise allows for creative signal to be received. Sometimes the best option is to just sit in silent contemplation. Or dedicate time each day with no phone or any other external sources of information. This creates a vacuum in our minds which can be filled with creative insight. Discipline helps here, but I’ve personally found that grounding the restrictions against a set of values or higher purpose is more effective and motivating, especially at the beginning when the siren song of the external digital world is so loud.
Our internal filter controls the information that we transmit into the outside world. This filter may be overly restrictive due to fear or ego or by the self-constructed narratives we tell ourselves. As adults, we carry with us narratives and labels that situate our self in relation to others and society. The stories we tell about ourselves can act as a filter that restricts our creative potential. When our identity is based on a preconceived set of labels, it makes it more difficult it to act in ways that contradict that identity. We create roles for our self. These roles implicitly confine us within the boundary of finite games. Roles force us to play within the rules rather than play with the rules. How do we go about deconstructing our narratives and labels? The book recommends adopting a more childlike attitude. Children just do things. They live in the moment without worrying about the future or trying to conform to some identity.
Being more childlike as an adult is much easier said than done. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t really expand on how adults can be more childlike in practice, and in fact recommends not to over-analyze or force this state. However, in the spirit of playing with the rules rather than within them, I want to offer an idea for doing this. You need to seek out activities that suppress your default mode network (DMN). This brain region is widely believed to be the physical “location” of the self, and incidentally, is not yet fully developed in the brains of children. Suppressing this region in adults achieves a childlike state of mind via increased communication between different brain regions that don’t normally talk to one another. The reason they don’t normally talk to one another is because the DMN acts as a reducing valve that prunes connections between different brain regions. You can think of the DMN as the stern teacher that walks into a classroom. Before the teacher is in the room, there are conversations everywhere, even between people on opposite sides of the room. But as soon as the teacher walks in, the room goes silent and the more predictable patterns of conversations start to emerge (e.g., role call). How do you suppress the DMN? Meditation1, psychedelics2, and prolonged aerobic exercise3 are three options I’m aware of.
In addition to looking at ways to tune in and what that means for creativity, the book implicitly offers a set of metaphors that provide psychological structure to the creative act that really resonated with me.
CREATIVITY IS ABUNDANT OPPORTUNITY
Creativity is about tapping into the flow of ideas and manifesting them in the world. When you tune in to this flow and surrender yourself to it, it never runs dry. Ideas are constantly flowing. On the other hand, if we view creativity or ideas as being a competition over scarce resources, we hold onto our work, keep it in our heads, and are less prepared to share it with the world, because we think that one work will define us for the rest of our lives. A symptom of a scarcity mindset is perfectionism, which is based in fear. Fear of looking weird or bad, or otherwise not living up to the expectations that we or other people have for us. This is one form of our internal filter that we have to learn to let go of. On the other hand, an abundant mindset allows us to see each work as just one small piece within a much larger work of our lives. When we create with an abundant mindset, we are more free to start, finish, and share our work so that we may let it go and move on to the next piece.
CREATIVITY IS AN INFINITE GAME
The book describes creation as a game we play to play rather than to win. It is positive sum – great work begets more great work, both in ourselves and others. The process of tuning in, of restricting our external filter and loosening our internal filter, allows us to engage in the creative act as a forward-looking player in an infinite game. It allows for us to transcend the titles we may have acquired in other finite games we play, and create freely based on our intuitive sense of what the universe is telling us to work on rather than being restricted in scope by the roles we have created for ourselves. When we create as part of an infinite game, we honor our own curiosity by expressing what it inside of us, rather than trying to predict what will be most socially accepted at the time. Success is defined not by the level of public perception or praise, but by the consistent engagement with the process – start, finish, and share, then move on to the next one.
I’ve highlighted the parts of the book that have resonated with me the most. I’ll close with what I see as the key takeaway from the book: In order to create effectively, you need to develop self-awareness and tune in to your self. The answer is within you, not in the outside world.
Thanks for reading,
Connor