no. 23: Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

I'm probably the last person to learn about Hugh MacLeod. This guy is all-round kick ass in the motivating creativity department. In 2004 he released a free eBook: How To Be Creative <PDF> which is a serious kick in the butt to get your ideas off the ground.

Anyroad, now he has a print book called Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity which is so nicely summarized in a post from this blog at No Depression. There seems to be a large amount of overlap between the publications.

Some of my faourites:

11.
The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

15.
Dying young is overrated. Every kid underestimates his competition, and overestimates his chances. Every kid is a sucker for the idea that there’s a way to make it without having to do the actual hard work. The bars of West Hollywood, London, and New York are awash with people throwing their lives away in the desperate hope of finding a shortcut, any shortcut. Meanwhile the competition is at home, working their asses off.

17.
The world is changing. If you want to be able to afford groceries in five years, I’d recommend listening closely to the (people who push change) and avoiding the (people who resist change). In order to navigate the New Realities you have to be creative - not just within your particular profession, but in everything. Your way of looking at the world will need to become ever more fertile and original. The old ways are dead. And you need people around you who concur. That means hanging out more with the creative people, the freaks, the real visionaries. They’re easy enough to find if you make the effort, if you’ve got something worthwhile to offer in return. Avoid the folk who play it safe. They can’t help you anymore. Their stability model no longer offers that much stability. They are extinct; they are extinction.

Check out his blog and drawings at Gaping Void.

via Metafilter.