The War of Art
"In this powerful, straight-from-the-hip examination of the internal obstacles to success, bestselling author Steven Pressfield shows readers how to identify, defeat, and unlock the inner barriers to creativity. The War of Art is an inspirational, funny, well-aimed kick in the pants guaranteed to galvanize every would-be artist, visionary, or entrepreneur." --from back cover.
Stats for nerds
112recommend
165mentions
140people
2009–2025years
79% recommend21% neutral1% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Each writer has his/hers own way of finding the mental state in which words start flowing. About "overcome the internal resistance" I suggest you read Steven Pressfield's "War of art". It describes resistance quite accurately imho.
- This gives very strong War of Art (Pressfield) vibes.
As simple as it is, just remembering this is enough to make me go do the thing.
And on that note, back to the thing.
- There are two books on the issue by a guy called Steven Pressfield, "The War of Art" and "Do the Work". I've read the latter and it's good. He talks about how resistance strengthens the closer you get to ending a project. I've found it useful in my work.
- I'm more empathetic to the "stretch out the simple idea" approach since I realized that there's basically no way to monetize or productize a concise but useful idea. If I read a really great tweet about doing creative work, I'd probably forget it in a day or two. But if I have a friend who's struggling with creative work, I can just give him a copy of The War of Art and there's a much higher chance it will "catch" (and Pressfield pockets a few well-earned dollars too). And for what it's worth, The War of Art does very little stretching.
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- There is no best. Books mean different things at different times in your life. When I was a kid, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Conan Saga, where the greatest books ever written and I still think they were amazing but, my reading interests have changed, here are a few of the best books I've enjoyed reading recently.
The War of Art - Pressfield Outlive - Attia The Fourth Turning - Strauss
