Everyone is a Creator: Rick Rubin’s "The Creative Act: A Way of Being"

Rick Rubin: Beyond Music Production

Probably the first time I came across Rick Rubin was through Eminem's song Berzerk, which is on the Marshall Mathers LP2 album. Back then, I used to listen to rap much more than I do right now (even though I still love it) and kept up with the newest trends. I eventually came to learn that Rubin was a legendary music producer with a slightly, shall we say, eccentric look who was behind some of the most prominent records and albums in the history of music. And that was pretty much where all my knowledge about and interest in him came to an end.

Fast forward to 2023, however, and his interviews with a number of different podcasters that I listen to suddenly started to pop up on my YouTube feed. A quick glance at the titles showed me that he had a book out called The Creative Act and not surprisingly, he was talking about creativity. Frankly, I was not too keen on listening to them for a while, mainly for two reasons: 1) I never thought of myself as a creative person or believed that I was doing something creative. I mean, I was a historian by training who was doing consulting work. Where was the creativity in that? And 2) in my hubris, I judged the book by its cover and thought that a guy who looked like he could not grow out of his hippie phase (look him up if you don’t know what I am referring to) would not have anything useful to say to me.

When I finally went ahead and clicked to listen to his interview with Andrew Huberman, though, I realized that I could not be more wrong (apologies, Mr. Rubin!).

To give a little bit more background: Rick Rubin is one of the founders of Def Jam Records and has worked with incredibly successful artists from all kinds of genres in his long career, including Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Metallica, Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eminem, Jay-Z, etc. The list goes on.

In January 2023, he published his book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, where he distilled his insights on the creative process and put them on paper in 78 short chapters, each relating to a different aspect of the creative process. The book does much more than that, however. As he explained himself in an interview, even though he “set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art... it revealed itself to be a book on how to be,” which was the primary reason I enjoyed it and gleaned so much from it.

The Creative Act is not an easy book to review because it does not pretend to convey a thesis or an argument like a more conventional or academic book does. From the very start, Rubin himself cautions the reader that “Nothing in this book is known to be true. It is a reflection on what I’ve noticed — not facts so much as thoughts." So, what I am going to do instead is focus on some key ideas that resonated with me and that widened my perspective in thinking about my own life.

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Reframing Creativity as a Way of Being

This is the first and most profound idea that had an impact on me, which also comes closest to being the main premise of the whole book. I’ll let Mr. Rubin explain:

Those who do not engage in the traditional arts might be wary of calling themselves artists. They might perceive creativity as something extraordinary or beyond their capabilities. A calling for the special few who are born with these gifts.

Fortunately, this is not the case.

Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us…

Regardless of whether or not we’re formally making art, we are all living as artists. We perceive, filter, and collect data, then curate an experience for ourselves and others based on this information set. Whether we do this consciously or unconsciously, by the mere fact of being alive, we are active participants in the ongoing process of creation.

To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention.

As I said above, I never thought of myself as a creative person. Reading Rubin’s book, though, I took another look at this belief and realized that I was taking too narrow a view of what “creativity” meant, equating it simply with artists who put out these great works of art that elicit awe and inspiration. Looking at it as a “way of being in the world” or as a “way of perceiving” and expressing myself, on the other hand, opens up new possibilities for how I define myself and what I do in life.

As a historian, for instance, I delve into different types of archives, collect a great deal of data, and use it to construct a narrative that tells a story. It is me who gets to decide what goes into that story, what is left out, and the way it is told. Looking at it through the lens of Rubin’s definition of creativity, the whole process entails a number of key creative decisions that shape the end product. In a sense, Rubin’s book made me look at what I have been doing in the past 10–11 years from a fresh perspective and fully recognize (and come to grips with) a key aspect of it, while also enabling me to see myself in a different way.

Art as self-expression

Why do we create then? What is the purpose, the drive behind engaging with the process of art, defining “art” in its broadest possible sense? Rick Rubin gives a simple but powerful explanation. He argues that the primary reason we create art and engage in any type of creative activity is to express ourselves. According to Rubin, “The reason we create art isn’t with the intention of making something useful for someone else. We create to express who we are. Who we are and where we are on our journey.”

He is careful (and probably too steeped in the Buddhist tradition), however, to argue that we all have one, essential, and unchanging self that we need to express through our creativity. Instead, he makes this beautiful analogy between the self and a prism:

“In a prism, a single beam of light enters and is broken into an array of colors. The self, too, is a prism. Neutral events enter, and are transformed into a spectrum of feelings, thoughts, and sensations. All this information is processed distinctively by each aspect of self, refracting life’s light in its own way, and emitting different shades of art.

For this reason, not every work can reflect all of our selves. Perhaps it’s never possible, no matter how hard we try. Instead, we might embrace the prism of self, and keep allowing reality to bend uniquely through us.”

These ideas—art as a form of self-expression and self as a prism—resonated with me to a great extent. I toyed with the idea of starting a Substack page/newsletter for a long time. The primary obstacle that held me back, however, was deciding on what to write. Whenever I grappled with this question in my head, I immediately defaulted to my academic expertise and thought that I should write about Ottoman history, or Turkey and Turkish politics. The only problem was that this “solution” never really excited me or truly moved me, since I have already been writing about those topics for academic and professional reasons for a long time, and the thought of starting up another space dedicated solely to those areas did not appeal to me.

In the end, I realized that I could simply write about myself. I’ve reached a point where I was convinced that I could make a valuable contribution, however small, just by talking about my thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I could express the way I perceived the world and how it changed and evolved over time, and that would be enough. In a sense, I was taking Rick Rubin’s advice even before I read his words, which I took to be an endorsement of my conviction that I was more or less on the right path.

Self-doubt and pressure for success

Finally, Rick Rubin’s advice on self-doubt and how to move beyond it also supplied me with a great deal of ideas to ponder. Having worked with countless successful artists, Rubin reassures us that pretty much everyone experiences self-doubt, especially when “beginning a work, completing a work, and sharing a work.” To deal with these emotions, Rubin advises the reader to look at the work through a new frame. He writes:

“We tend to think that what we’re making is the most important thing in our lives and that it’s going to define us for all eternity. Consider moving forward with the more accurate point of view that it’s a small work, a beginning. The mission is to complete the project so you can move on to the next. That next one is a stepping-stone to the following work. And so it continues in productive rhythm for the entirety of your creative life.

All art is a work in progress. It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment. One in which we can’t predict the outcome. Whatever the result, we will receive useful information that will benefit the next experiment.

If you start from the position that there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, and creativity is just free play with no rules, it’s easier to submerge yourself joyfully in the process of making things.”

As someone who continues to struggle daily with major self-doubt and who is prone to thinking in “all-or-nothing” terms, I found Rick Rubin’s advice to be nothing short of genius. Even with my weekly posts here, the “resistance” fueled by self-doubt is always there. “What if I can’t write a decent piece?” “What if nobody reads what I write?” “Who would even care about anything I say?” These thoughts, and their variations, always creep up on me whenever the time to sit down and write rolls around each week.

Having read Rubin’s thoughts on the issue, however, I now attempt a simpler approach. I try to let go of my attachment to “success” and just focus on the process and the joy and pleasure I glean from putting the words down on paper (or screen, if you will). This does not mean that I do not want my articles to reach a wider audience. I do. But whenever I get trapped in that mode of thinking, I try to remind myself of the main reason why I am doing this, which is to express myself sincerely. As Rubin puts it, “Instead of focusing on what making this will bring you, focus on what you contribute to this art to make it the best it could possibly be, with no limitation.” And that is what I am more or less trying to do.

Until next time!