More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
David Kadavy
Read between
January 7 - January 17, 2023
I feared the judgment of others. I doubted my abilities. I struggled with motivation. I escaped into distractions.
Sounds familiar
People who believe they can learn, actually can (“growth mindset”). People who don’t believe they can learn, struggle to learn (“fixed mindset”).
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. —Pablo Picasso
I feel uneasy, like I’ve wasted a day, if I haven’t created something.
to the first law of art: There Is Art Inside You.
“no matter who you are, you really are the only person with that voice. And that is the thing to really lean into, even if it’s weird.”
The source of that potential is the art that’s inside you.
What I saw in the mirror was my true self. But the life I was living didn’t reflect my true self.
When we create our art, it’s a process of self-actualization.
The only way to become your true self is to find the art inside you and make it real.
Your art is the best expression possible of who you really are.
You make art when you take your passions, your interests, and even your compassion for others, and combine them t...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
When you’re too scared to start, it’s because you don’t want to get hurt.
Even though your true self is trying to get out, your ego is always there to keep it in check.
This is useful for intelligence of Life.
“I’ve never found a bully that was doing amazing things with their life…. Successful, happy, well-emotionally-balanced people don’t have time to shit on somebody else.” Ego doesn’t just make you act arrogant or criticize others. Ego also causes you to make excuses for yourself.
Sean Stephenson
In any artistic endeavor, you’ll always face resistance.
the third law of art: Your Ego Fears Your Art.
The same way a rocket needs to escape the gravitational pull of Earth to get into space, your art needs to escape the pull of ego to get into the world.
Curiosity first.
that feeling of “flow” – that would be enough to keep myself motivated.
once we’ve reached adulthood, we’re encouraged to exploit what we’ve learned.
You have to find the right balance between exploitation and exploration.
Even if I wasn’t finishing the projects, I was learning new skills with each one.
Following your curiosity can be scary, but if you give yourself space and time, eventually curiosities converge.
As society progresses, a vacuum grows between the status quo and the true desires of people in the world.
Most of us neglect The Voice. We’ve been taught to fit in and maintain the status quo, so The Voice is a liability. It could get us into trouble.
Note this is capital V for voice. Not the voice that tells us negative things (i.e. negative self-talk).
This is a different voice full of ideas, some of which might be good.
You have to listen to the voice in your head and pursue its ideas.
It’s better to be right one time out of a hundred than to be right zero times out of zero.
Is your idea giving you the feeling you want your audience to have? If not, is there something you can do to get yourself into that mood?
Don’t let your own dream intimidate you into not starting, or lead you into burnout when you do start. Instead, like Evel Knievel’s dream of jumping over the Grand Canyon, let your dream be a guide. Like Hugh MacLeod’s business-card doodles, start small, and over time, you’ll build closer and closer to that dream.
that’s not how creative work really happens. It’s often messy, and iterative.
Perfectionism is dangerous because perfectionism is a real “humble-brag” of a quality.
If we never get started, we never get good, and you can’t get good without first being bad.
You remind yourself that it’s okay if your first song or short story or painting isn’t what you had pictured. You use that first piece as a starting point to build the next piece.
starting in a way that gains momentum is a great way to leave resistance in the dust.
By finding the part of the project that is easy for you to do, but that will build momentum to do the harder parts of the project, you keep yourself moving – with more fun, and less pain – all the way to an explosive finish.
Cracking the whip cf: "first crack" at something new
