Book review: The Creative Act: A Way of Being - Rick Rubin

I often say that I design my independent research in music cognition like I compose a music piece, but it is represented in a scientific research form. I initially said it because I had truly felt like this inherently. Then, the more I did my experimental design, the more I started to ponder the underlying mechanism of creativity that I used. Why do I design my research like this? One day, I found that the process of my research design is similar to artists designing their artistic works. I do not intend to find the gap in research topics like most students in science do, but I position myself as a medium that represents and connects the dots of worlds that I have experienced—through my music cognition research.

Artistic work is a work that represents your identity, which results from your experience. This is the meaning of artistic work that I explore and conclude by myself. And this book has verified that I am on the right path to being an artist in the form of a music cognition researcher. Reading this book while I have crystallised my thoughts by myself is one of the best gifts that the universe has given me at the right time.

This book may not benefit people who rarely create real creative works. But it does not mean such people can’t read it. You can read, but please be aware that the content in this book can be just inspiration that will be lost from your life unconsciously. However, if you have experience in being a real creator (please assess it by your instinct), you may not remember the book’s content either, but the content will be embedded in your life as an energy that pushes you to create novel works beyond what you have imagined—until you die.

P.S. The content of Range appears in other books, such as this book, again.