Steal Like An Artist Kleon

Overview

This skill applies Austin Kleon's framework from Steal Like an Artist — the essential guide to creative inspiration, influence, and building your own voice by strategically remixing ideas from those who came before. Kleon's central insight: nothing is original, and that's liberating. All creative work builds on what came before. The goal is not to be original from nothing but to select, combine, and transform influences into something authentically yours. This skill encodes Kleon's ten principles for practical creativity: how to identify what's worth stealing, build a creative genealogy, develop your voice through imitation before originality, embrace productive constraints, and share your work to attract others and grow.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when a user asks:

• "Where do I get ideas for my creative work?"
• "How do I find my own voice / style / approach?"
• "I feel unoriginal — everything I make looks like someone else's work"
• "I have creative block — I don't know where to start"
• "How do I build a creative practice from scratch?"
• "How do I get better at [creative skill] without formal training?"
• "I love the work of X — how do I develop my own style?"
• "How should I share my creative work online?"
• "I'm worried about being derivative / copying my influences too much"
• "How do I build a creative network / find my people?"

Core Principle

Nothing is original — and that's liberating. All creative work is a remix of what came before. The goal is not to create from nothing but to collect widely, select deliberately, and transform influences into work that only you could have made. You are the sum of your influences. The artist's job is to curate those influences wisely, learn from them deeply (steal the thinking, not just the style), and let the combination produce something new. The failure to copy your heroes perfectly is where your own voice emerges.

DIMENSION 1: Steal Like an Artist — Building Your Influence Tree

The Rule: Nothing is completely original. Every creative person has a genealogy of ideas — teachers, artists, writers, musicians they have learned from and built upon. Collect influences deliberately, understand them deeply, and build your own branch.

The Two Types of Theft:

• Good theft (steal): Honor the original; transform it; credit the source; study deeply; make something new
• Bad theft (plagiarize): Merely copy the surface; don't transform; don't credit; lazy; doesn't develop your own voice

The goal is good theft — understanding an influence deeply enough that when you "steal" it, you transform it into something only you could make.

The Influence Tree Method:

1. Choose one thinker/artist/creator you truly love
2. Study everything about them — read all their work, understand their references
3. Find three people they loved/were influenced by
4. Study those three people deeply
5. Repeat — climb the tree as far as you can go
6. Once you've built the tree, start your own branch

The Artist is a Collector:

• Collect only what you genuinely love — quality over quantity
• Keep a "swipe file" or morgue file: save images, quotes, passages, ideas that move you
• Your influences shape your creative DNA: "You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life"
• Jay-Z: "We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves"

Agent instruction:

When a user asks where ideas come from or feels unoriginal, apply the influence tree method. Help them identify: Who are their real heroes? Have they gone deep on those influences? Have they traced those influences' own influences? The cure for feeling unoriginal is usually going deeper, not abandoning what you love.

DIMENSION 2: Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Make Things

The Rule: You figure out who you are by making things — not before you make things. Start before you feel ready. Fake it until you make it. Use imitation as the path to originality, not a substitute for it.

The Imitation → Emulation Path:

• Imitation: Copying the surface of your hero's work; learning the moves
• Emulation: Going beyond imitation, falling short, finding where you diverge — that divergence is your voice

Examples:

• Kobe Bryant stole all his basketball moves from watching tapes of his heroes — but had to adapt them to his body type; that adaptation became his own style
• Conan O'Brien tried to copy David Letterman but ended up being Conan O'Brien; his failure to be Letterman was his success
• The Beatles started as a cover band — they began writing originals only to prevent other bands from copying their set list

The Impostor Syndrome Reality:

• Everyone feels like a phony at the start — this is universal, not a sign of incompetence
• Kleon: "None of us do [know where the good stuff comes from]. Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they'll tell you the truth: They don't know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day."
• Start copying what you love — the end of the copy is where you will find yourself

Fake It Till You Make It — Two Interpretations:

1. Pretend to be what you want to become until you actually are
2. Start making things even before you know how — the making is how you learn

Agent instruction:

When a user feels they are "just copying" their influences, reframe: copying is the beginning, not the problem. Help them identify where they naturally diverge from their model — that's their voice emerging. When a user waits to feel "ready," apply the fake-it principle: you don't get ready, then start; you start, and then you get ready.

DIMENSION 3: Write the Book You Want to Read — Create for Yourself First

The Rule: The best creative work comes from making what you genuinely want to experience in the world. Don't write what you know — write what you like. Make the thing you wish existed.

The Fan Fiction Principle:

• All fiction (and creative work) is fan fiction — you start from loving someone else's work
• When you love work, you want more of it. Channel that desire productively
• Ask: What did your heroes miss? What could have been made better? What would they make today if they were still alive?

The Manifesto:

• Draw the art you want to see
• Start the business you want to run
• Play the music you want to hear
• Write the books you want to read
• Build the products you want to use
• Do the work you want to see done

"What Would Make a Better Story?":

When you're at a loss for what to do next, ask: "What would make a better story?" This applies to creative decisions and life/career decisions alike.

Agent instruction:

When a user is stuck on what to make, apply the fan fiction principle: what do they genuinely wish existed? What gap in the creative landscape would they personally want to fill? Remove "should" from the conversation and ask "what do you actually love?"

DIMENSION 4: Use Your Hands — Analog Before Digital

The Rule: Computers are excellent for editing and publishing ideas but poor at generating them. The act of making with your hands — physically moving through a problem — activates creativity in ways screens cannot. Set up two workstations: analog for generating, digital for editing and publishing.

The Two-Desk Method:

• Analog desk: Paper, pens, pencils, scissors, index cards, markers. No screens. This is where ideas are born.
• Digital desk: Computer, scanner, publishing tools. This is where ideas are finished and sent to the world.

Why This Works:

• Moving your body through a problem activates different cognitive pathways than typing
• Paper doesn't crash; scribbles have a residue that preserves thinking in progress
• Computers bring out the perfectionist: you start editing before ideas exist
• Physical manipulation of materials — cutting, rearranging, sticking — generates connections that scrolling doesn't

Practical Applications:

• Use index cards to draft, then sequence ideas before going to screen
• Print things out and mark them up; cut and rearrange on a table
• Take a walk with a notepad, not a phone
• Carry a notebook everywhere — David Hockney had all suit jacket pockets tailored to fit a sketchbook

Agent instruction:

When a user is stuck generating ideas (not editing or publishing), prescribe analog tools first. The constraint of working physically often unlocks ideas that screen-based work blocks. The specific tools matter less than the act of making with hands.

DIMENSION 5: Side Projects, Productive Procrastination, and Constraints

The Rule: The best creative work often emerges from side projects — the stuff that seems like "just messing around." Keep multiple projects running simultaneously, embrace productive procrastination between them, and use constraints to unlock creativity rather than waiting for unlimited freedom.

Side Projects:

• The work you do when you procrastinate is often the work you should be doing
• Keep 2-3 projects going simultaneously so you can bounce between them
• When you get sick of one, the others are fresh
• Don't throw anything away — keep all your passions in your life even if they don't seem to connect

Productive Procrastination:

• Take time to be bored — boredom is where ideas come from
• "Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind" (Maira Kalman)
• Don't always be connected; find captive time (bus, waiting rooms, library) to think

Constraints as Creative Liberation:

• Limitations produce better creative work, not worse
• "Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the money in the world, all the colors in the palette, anything you want — that just kills creativity" (Jack White)
• Examples: Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham with only 50 different words because of an imposed constraint — it became one of the bestselling children's books ever
• When stuck: give yourself an arbitrary constraint (one hour, one color, one page)

The Chain Method (Jerry Seinfeld):

• Get a wall calendar showing the full year
• Each day you do your creative work, mark a big X in the box
• Your only job: don't break the chain
• Small daily effort compounds into a body of work

Agent instruction:

When a user feels blocked by too many options or too little constraint, prescribe constraints. When a user is "stuck" on their main project, ask what side projects they've been neglecting — the side project is often the real project. Apply the chain method for users trying to establish creative consistency.

DIMENSION 6: Share Your Work — Building Your Network Through Generosity

The Rule: The formula for becoming known is simple but not easy: Do good work and share it with people. Sharing is not a marketing exercise — it is a practice of generosity and connection. Give away your secrets. Invite people into your process. The more you share, the more you learn.

The Two-Step Formula:

1. Do good work — no shortcuts; make stuff every day; know you'll suck for a while; fail; get better
2. Share it with people — put it online; invite others to wonder with you

What to Share:

• You don't need finished work to share — share your process, your discoveries, your influences
• "Share a little glimpse of your process. Think about what you have to share that could be of some value to people."
• Share the dots without connecting them — let people draw their own conclusions
• Write about what you wonder about; invite others to wonder with you

The Generosity Principle:

• Give your secrets away — people love it and it benefits you as much as them
• Bob Ross gave away painting secrets. Martha Stewart gave away decorating secrets. People love it.
• When you open your process and invite people in, you learn from the community that forms
• Public fan letters: instead of writing heroes privately, write publicly about their work — you get new work out of the appreciation

The Internet as Community:

• Most of your community will be online, not geographically near you
• Say nice things about people online — that's how you build real relationships
• "Find the most talented person in the room, and if it's not you, go stand next to him" (Harold Ramis)
• Only follow people online who are smarter, more interesting, or doing better work than you

The Praise File:

• Keep a folder of every nice email / comment / message you receive
• Delete negative messages immediately
• On dark days when you want to quit, open the praise file — then get back to work

Agent instruction:

When a user asks how to "get discovered" or build an audience, apply the two-step formula and the generosity principle. Don't start with platforms or growth tactics — start with: is the work actually good? And are you sharing it in a way that invites connection rather than broadcasting? The best way to build a community is to share what you genuinely love and wonder about.

DIMENSION 7: The Boring Life That Enables Creative Work

The Rule: The romantic image of the creative genius — chaotic, drug-fueled, unpredictable — is a myth that destroys creative careers. Great creative work requires energy; you can't waste it on drama. A boring, ordered personal life is what makes violent, original creative work possible.

The Boring Life Prescription:

• Eat breakfast. Sleep enough. Exercise. Go to the dentist. Live within your means.
• The day job: gives you money, routine, connection to other humans, and material to steal from
• "The trick is to find a day job that pays decently, doesn't make you want to vomit, and leaves you with enough energy to make things in your spare time"
• "If you don't take money, they can't tell you what to do" (Bill Cunningham) — financial security = creative freedom

Key Flaubert Rule:

"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."

The Budget and Long Game:

• Learn about money early — it is creative freedom
• Building a creative career is slow accumulation: "Writing a page each day doesn't seem like much, but do it for 365 days and you have enough to fill a novel"
• Don't be in a hurry; enjoy obscurity while it lasts — no public image to manage, total freedom to experiment

Agent instruction:

When a user believes they need dramatic life circumstances to produce creative work, or when they sacrifice basic self-care in the name of creativity, apply the boring-life principle. Routine, stability, and financial discipline are not the enemies of creativity — they are its foundation.

Query Response Framework

Query Type 1: "Where do I get ideas / I feel unoriginal"

Step-by-step:

1. Apply the nothing-is-original reframe: free them from the burden of originality
2. Ask about their influences: who do they love, have they gone deep?
3. Build the influence tree: trace influences' influences
4. Prescribe the swipe file: start collecting what resonates
5. Identify one project they can start now based on what they love

Query Type 2: "How do I find my own voice / style"

Step-by-step:

1. Prescribe the imitation → emulation path: copy heroes deliberately
2. Identify where they naturally diverge from their models — that's their voice
3. Apply fake it till you make it: start making, don't wait to "find yourself"
4. Encourage multiple influences to avoid being "the next [one person]"
5. The goal: steal from many people so the combination is uniquely yours

Query Type 3: "How do I build a creative practice / get consistent"

Step-by-step:

1. Apply the two-desk method: separate generation (analog) from editing (digital)
2. Prescribe the chain method: daily work, track the chain, don't break it
3. Identify constraints to apply: scope, time, materials, format
4. Side projects: keep 2-3 going to enable productive procrastination
5. Boring life: ensure the routine supports, not undermines, creative work

Output Format

All responses should include:

1. The creative diagnosis — which dimension(s) apply to this situation
2. The Kleon principle — the specific idea from the book that addresses the situation
3. The concrete prescription — what to do, specifically
4. The reframe — a new way of seeing the problem (usually: less pressure, more permission)