Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It

by Adam Savage

Whenever we’re driven to reach out and create something from nothing, whether it’s something physical like a chair, or more temporal and ethereal, like a poem, we’re contributing something of ourselves to the world.

we’re not putting what we make into the culture, what we make IS the culture.

Putting something in the world that didn’t exist before is the broadest definition of making, which means all of us can be makers. Creators.

nothing we make ever turns out exactly as we imagined; that this is a feature not a bug; and that this is why we do any of it.

Wrong turns are part of every journey.

Reading about making always makes my hands itch to make something myself.

an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Which is to say, to get started you need to become the outside force that starts the (mental and physical) ball rolling,

Obsession is the gravity of making. It moves things, it binds them together, and gives them structure.

There is a belief among many of these types, that to jump with both feet into something like that is to play hooky from the tangible, important details of life. But I would argue—and have—that these pursuits are the important parts of life.

But what does that mean, to go deep? As a maker, it means interrogating your interest in something and deconstructing the thrill it gives you. It means understanding why this thing that has captured your attention has not let go, and what about it keeps bringing you back. It means giving yourself over to your obsession.

when it comes to creativity, when it comes to making things, when it comes to success at anything, obsession is often the seed of real excellence.

We all have brains, and the ability to do remarkable things with them, but what we do with them is up to each of us.

When your project feels like a lion that needs to be tamed, a comprehensive checklist can be both the whip and the chair.

I find making lists to be one of the greatest stress reducers besides meditation.

Making is making, and none of it is failure. It is an iterative process. It is how you learn new skills. It is how you gain knowledge and experience. It’s how you improve yourself. It is how you make new things. And the key to it all is tolerance. Both literal and figurative.

We pursue the things we do precisely because we can’t know the outcomes ahead of time.

As a maker and storyteller, I see myself as part of a continuum, going back to the beginning of humans using tools and telling stories, and continuing forward into infinite possible futures. Sharing information is the fuel for the engine of progress.

That process of opening yourself up and sharing the cultural commonalities you care about can be a pathway to learning more than you could ever imagine.

As an employer myself now, I appreciate when the people who work with me want to learn more, and express that, and I’m happy to provide the space for them to increase their skill base.

when you interview for a job you rarely get to showcase all your skills. That’s true regardless of the job you seek or the field you work in.

Embrace the noun (Maker, Painter, Writer, Designer) by sharing with the world evidence that you’ve been living the verb (making, painting, writing, designing).

to make something special, to create anything great, it really does take a village. Nobody does anything new truly by themselves.

generosity with one’s knowledge is paramount for our species, because knowledge is power, and the most powerful thing you can do with knowledge is give it away.

I believe the world is a better place when we’re all pulling on the same rope.

in my shop, on every pair of fabric scissors we have, I write in bright White-Out marker: CLOTH OR DIE.

I’m a fervent believer that a shop is a holy space wherein we pay attention, like prayer, to those things that are important to us:

A shop is where I get to pretend that the universe has order and that I have some measure of control over it.