“Rules of a creator’s life”

Stumbled across this in my internet roaming and thought I would share. A few perhaps overused cliche platitudes but I think there is a kernel of truth in each of them.

Thanks for these reminders, yo. It’s crazy how much it’s all about the individual’s perspective. When creating for oneself (even when working under someone else in design - you are still making your decisions), a lot of these rules come naturally. The successful creator is the embodiment of these aspects. They’re curious, hungry, and want to share that excitement with others.

After a project kickoff in my first design job, my manager told us something along the lines of, “For the next two hours, doodle up some ideas before you head out to lunch.” I’m 100% not foreign to the creative career, but that command still blew my mind. In what other paid field would someone just nonchalantly say that?

I don’t like 1.

  1. should be: “Do better than what you are expected to do”. Doing “more” doesn’t impress anyone if it doesn’t lead to “better”. Also I will never do “more” unless I get paid for it. Giving away work for free must be the single biggest mistake a “creator” can do.
    Also 6.and 9. sound like “do free extra hours”. I have yet to meet the person who loves every single thing about their “creator’s life”. Even designers have to reply e-mail and sit in meetings. No use in pretending all that nonsense is fun.

Funny. Not a single thing about the customer/recipient of the creation.

Reminds me of the 10 commandments, the first 4 are about the awesomeness of the creator, the other 6 are for us petty humans. Except in this case, 8 of the 9 are about the awesomeness of the creator. And technically, the ninth (#3) may have nothing to do with the customer.

It doesn’t say love every second of what you do, I think it more of a general statement. Not to be taken completely literally…