Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Analog is the opposite of digital, and doing analog work means working manually, i.e., working by hand with physical objects, rather than with digital media like a computer. In modern life where work is increasingly digital, working in analog is connected The Difference Between Work and Play. While sitting at a computer can stymie creativity, analog work usually involves materials that people associate with childhood play, like papers, pens, pencils, sticky notes, and scissors. This is especially true for Austin Kleon’s generation who experienced childhood before the internet. These analog tools can help make work feel more like play (58), helping the creative process move along. Kleon suggests that his reader spend ten dollars making an “analog station” in their workspace, where digital technology is not allowed (60). There, creatives can pretend it’s “craft time,” and regain their creative energy by playing.

Kleon starts his book by saying that this advice is accumulated from a decade of “trying to figure out how to make art,” but that his tips “aren’t just for artists,” but for “anyone who’s trying to inject some creativity into their life and work” (1). Kleon’s definition of art is inclusive and flexible, not limited to “high” art.