Legendary rock/rap producer and record label owner Rick Rubin has crafted a how-to for all of us. Its title, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, says it all, for Rubin believes in inherent creativity being unleashed by being responsive to oneself and the world. Whether this is the book for you depends on how you respond to pronouncements from high on a mountain, drawn from a lifetime of creating, a smorgasbord of quasi-mystical offerings. For this reader, the most interesting advice comes when he gives examples from his own illustrious career, but these are few and far between. Much of what he intones sounded to me like a monk’s sermon, maybe a Buddhist monk. All that said, many of his pronouncements work like incantations and can be most powerful. Approach with care but I do recommend you take a look at The Creative Act.
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