When I was asked to talk to students at a community college in upstate New York, I sat down and wrote a talk based on a list of 10 things I wished I�d heard when I was starting out:





Steal like an artist.


Don�t wait until you know who you are to get started.


Write the book you want to read.


Use your hands.


Side projects and hobbies are important.


The secret: do good work and share it with people.


Geography is no longer our master.


Be nice. (The world is a small town.)


Be boring. (It�s the only way to get work done.)


Creativity is subtraction.


The text and slides from the talk �rocked the creative world� (GalleyCat) and went viral�since it�s been online, the original blog post has reached millions of readers.