Icarus Deception

I like Godin's books; however, they were getting a little repetitive. This one, thankfully, was a bit different. He defines 'Art' as something new, real, and important. He argues that producing this kind of Art is what we should all strive to do and that it's really hard to do. The book seems to consist of, maybe, a hundred small essays on various aspects of making Art.

There are a lot of key insights, but my favorite is about the "lizard brain". He, and others, say that your mind will try to protect itself against judgement by making you procrastinate or otherwise avoid doing the work. Others argue that you must fight this feeling to create Art. Godin argues that you're likely not making Art unless you feel this resistance. As a result, you should welcome this feeling of mild anxiety as that's how you know you're working on the right part of the project.

I love his definition of Art and I will be trying to welcome that feeling of dread when I see that one, really hard, project on my list.

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