Daily Rituals
How Artists Work
by Mason Currey · first published 2013
68% recommend30% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, fun profiles of the daily routines of about 160 writers, artists, scientists and composers. Shows creative work comes from steady schedules and a few focused hours, not inspiration. Suits anyone building a habit.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912 "time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers." Kafka is one of 161 inspired—and inspiring—minds, among them, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, who describe how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done t
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If you haven't read or listened to this book yet, I highly recommend it: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work[1] It's a collection of daily routines of many famous and prolific artists. The surprising thing about so many of the artists is that they only work 2 or 3 hours per day, then spend…
on “The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday” ↗If you are interested in the routines of writers, I can't recommend Daily Rituals by Mason Curry enough. Kierkegaard's method of preparing coffee is probably my favorite: “The Danish philosopher’s day was dominated by two pursuits: writing and walking. Typically, he wrote in the morning,…
on “An interview with Paul Graham on writing” ↗…creativity is far from an inspired activity. It's mostly the result of a lot of hard work and problem solving. Both of which require a person to show up and work. Reading a book like Mason Currey's "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work" is very enlightening because it illustrates just how shockingly routine and boring the lives of many famous artists really are/were.
on “Ask HN: How to increase self-discipline as a self-employed person?” ↗Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. It describes the daily schedule of almost every famous creative person you can think of in a few paragraphs, from Bach to Tesla to Ayn Rand. Peering into the day to…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗For people who find this type of thing interesting, I recommend checking out Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. Has the daily routine of lots of famous people throughout history. I enjoyed it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15799151-daily-rituals
on “Show HN: My Morning Routine – Share and Explore Routines” ↗…chapter 2 gives a literature review of the topic. - Johnson. S., 2010, Where Good Ideas Come From, Penguin UK. Packed with lots of good anecdotes, this is a very accessible book. - Currey, M. 2013, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Knopf. Blog avaiable here: http://dailyroutines.typepad.com/. This started off as a blog and developed into a wonderful and useful little book. In my opinion, creative rituals are…
on “Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?” ↗Here are the first books that crossed my mind. The Road. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. How to Read a Modern Painting: Lessons from the Modern Masters. The Sun Also Rises. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles. Reamde: A Novel. 1984.
on “Ask HN: Book recommendations?” ↗…different theories about how things get done. I’m interested in this topic, so I pay attention and see how the theories hold up. This is tangential to the rest of the post, but you should get a copy of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey, which is a compendium of short, fun descriptions of the conditions in which artists do their art. The similarity between artists and entrepreneurs is strong, even if…
on “How things get done” ↗One common thing you notice among highly creative people is how they completely lock down certain aspects of their life Yes. I've mentioned this book on HN before, but Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Create discusses this point. I wrote more about the book here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/daily-rituals-how-a....
on “Woody Allen: What I've learned” ↗yes, see Daily Rituals: How Artists Work http://www.amazon.ca/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work-ebook/dp...
on “Why You Shouldn't Interrupt a Programmer” ↗The book Daily Rituals, from which most of these seem to be excerpted, is a great read into the daily routines of lots of "creative" people of all stripes -- writers, artists, scientists, etc. http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp/0307...
on “Daily Routines of Famous Writers” ↗To add to this, there's a great book on the topic regarding the daily rituals of artists: http://www.amazon.ca/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp/03072... It leads to the same conclusion -- 4 hours of work is about the maximum for any creative or intellectually rigorous field of…
on “Ask HN: 16-hour work week jobs?” ↗Daily Rituals (book) which covers the work habits of ~160 famous writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians. Nearly every single one had a strict schedule to force work into specific time slots…
on “Screw motivation, what you need is discipline” ↗elon musk biography, Getting things done, daily rituals, THE BOOKS THAT CHANGED ME: Rich dad poor dad, Deep work, 40 rules of love INCOMPLETE BOOKS: bird by bird, Bold, Smarter, faster better, charles duhig, One thing : will power, Crowdsouring, seven eves(fiction),…
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've read in the past year?” ↗If you read this article and found yourself wishing there was more detail about the writing routine of each author, then you might like "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work" [1]. It's a really great small book that goes in detail through the daily routines of many authors and artists. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp/030...
on “What Is The Morning Writing Effect?” ↗