Steal Like an Artist · Austin Kleon
“Every artist gets asked the question, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ The honest artist answers, ‘I steal them.’”
Why I Picked This Up
I was compartmentalizing my life — engineer by day, Telugu writer by night, product builder on weekends. This book gave me permission to stop separating them. The core idea is simple: creativity isn’t about originality, it’s about connecting influences from different worlds. That’s literally what slashAvi.sh is. Code + Telugu poetry + systems thinking + life design. All remixed into something that didn’t exist before.Key Ideas — With My Applications
1. Collect and Curate
Every creative person needs a “swipe file” — a collection of things that inspire you. Not to copy, but to study, remix, and build upon. Credit your sources. Trace your influences. What I do: I maintain a daily swipe habit in Notion — one idea, image, quote, or code snippet per day. My Telugu poetry is influenced by classical forms but remixed with modern themes. My engineering patterns borrow from architecture, music theory, and systems biology.2. Side Projects Are the Main Event
The stuff you do “on the side” is often where the real creativity happens. Side projects give you freedom to experiment without the pressure of shipping. What I do: Nishabdham started as a side project — Telugu poetry I wrote for myself. Thinki.sh started as personal thinking tools. MetaLabs is where I prototype ideas that might never ship. The side projects feed the “main” work and vice versa.3. Create Scenius, Not Genius
Kleon’s point: great work doesn’t come from lone geniuses. It comes from “scenius” — communities of creative people who share, critique, and build on each other’s work. What I do: I share work-in-progress publicly. This blog is a form of scenius — putting raw ideas out before they’re polished. The feedback loop from building in public is faster and more honest than perfecting in private.4. Use Your Hands
Digital tools are powerful but analog thinking unlocks different parts of the brain. Kleon advocates for physical creation alongside digital work. What I do: I spend 30 minutes writing or drawing on paper before touching screens in the morning. My Telugu poetry is often drafted longhand before being typed. Architecture diagrams start on whiteboards, not Figma.5. Geography Is No Longer Our Master
You don’t need to be in Silicon Valley or New York to do meaningful creative work. The internet is the great equalizer. What I do: I build from Sydney. My Telugu writing reaches readers in Hyderabad. My engineering content reaches builders globally. slashAvi.sh is proof that geography doesn’t limit your creative surface area.The Remix Ritual
One exercise I took from this book and made my own: Pair a tech concept with a Telugu proverb and see what emerges. Example: “Microservices” + “ఒక చేత్తో చప్పట్లు కొట్టలేము” (You can’t clap with one hand) = a micro-essay on why distributed systems need coordination, not just decomposition. This exercise trains cross-domain thinking. It’s weird, it’s fun, and it produces ideas I’d never get from staying in one lane.Who Should Read This
Anyone who feels like they’re “not creative enough.” Anyone who separates their professional and personal identities. Anyone who thinks originality means making something from nothing — it doesn’t. It means making unexpected connections.Key Quotes I Revisit
- “Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.”
- “The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.”
- “Creativity is subtraction.”
Pairs well with: Deep Work to balance creativity with focus, Skill with People for the community-building side.