Creatives obsess with how other successful creators do their work. Witness the 2013 bestseller Daily Rituals by Mason Currey.
But instead of focusing on the productive habits of successful artists, author Ellen Weinstein highlights their oddities.
Her book Recipes for Good Luck: The Superstitions, Rituals, and Practices of Extraordinary People contains some fascinating and funny habits.
- Thom Yorke prepares for live concerts with a headstand ritual
- NASA engineers eat peanuts before every launch as a lucky charm
- Picasso held on to his fingernail clippings to maintain his spiritual “essence”
- Frida Kahlo painted plants and flowers from her desk, looking over her garden
Creative people can be a bit superstitious, to say the least. As Seth Godin likes to say, “we’re all weird.”
Whatever you do to keep your edge, do it.
All images courtesy Chronicle Books