There’s a balance between what you want to give the world and what it needs. If you’re lucky, your work is in the middle.
The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.
You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with.
The artist is a collector. Not a hoarder, mind you, there’s a difference: Hoarders collect indiscriminately, artists collect selectively. They only collect things that they really love.
Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.
Write the book you want to read.
Genealogy of ideas. You don’t get to pick your family, but you can pick your teachers and you can pick your friends and you can pick the music you listen to and you can pick the books you read and you can pick the movies you see.
The only way to find your voice is to use it.
The thing is: It takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.
Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some time in another land, among people that do things differently than you. Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder.
You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.
Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder.
Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.
Pretend to be making something until you actually make something.
Keep all your passions in your life.
Today isn’t just another day. Today I’ll create something beautiful.
Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.
School is one thing. Education is another. The two don’t always overlap. Whether you’re in school or not, it’s always your job to get yourself an education.
You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.
Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.