The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful meditation on creativity and the creative process. I felt like the way I felt when reading Ray Dalio's Principles, but in a creative way instead of a business way.

It gives artists permission to be artists in a world where all art-forms are initially viewed as hobbies and afterthoughts.

I wish this book existed when I was young. I spent many years of my life being drawn to creating music, writing, videos, comedy sketches, and so on. But I've always had voices telling me how big of a waste of time it was. Even when I left for college I wanted to study music, but there's no money in music. So why would you spend $40k studying something that'll never pay off your loans.

I think it's really important for younger generations to be encouraged to follow what draws them and books like this are great for granting them that permission. Because it comes from Rick Rubin, someone that has succeeded in a tremendous way creating art.

I dropped this book to 4/5 stars because I was hoping to get more concrete examples from Rubin's days as a producer. There's a lot of vague creative language that could be solidified if an example was provided.

I understand why he didn't provide a lot of examples as it'd take away from the minimalist feeling of the book, but I feel even a secondary book that shared some of the creative principles alongside autobiographical stories would be an extremely high value read.

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