Rick Rubin's Creative Process | Rick Rubin & Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | - Do you have a process for removing the functions
00:00:05.000 | of the day and what you were doing last week
00:00:10.900 | and what's going on in order to get more access to this?
00:00:15.900 | I'm gonna think of it now more as a receiver inside of you.
00:00:21.620 | Almost like tuning a radio and then it comes in,
00:00:25.160 | like the beginning of a strummer clash.
00:00:27.740 | You love the radio, Joe love the radio, right?
00:00:29.780 | And then it comes in clear and there it is.
00:00:32.900 | How do you clear the static?
00:00:34.840 | What are some of the operational steps
00:00:38.540 | that you think might be more generalizable
00:00:43.060 | to regardless of where somebody in Africa
00:00:47.380 | is listening to this now?
00:00:48.820 | - When I engage in a particular project, whatever it is,
00:00:52.940 | I dedicate all of myself for that period of time,
00:00:59.460 | whatever it is, whether it be 20 minutes
00:01:02.660 | or whether it be five hours, whatever it is.
00:01:05.420 | Total focus and no outside distraction whatsoever.
00:01:12.740 | And when I leave that process,
00:01:18.180 | I do my best not to think about it when I'm away from it.
00:01:21.260 | I don't bring any materials with me.
00:01:23.660 | I don't leave the studio with works in progress
00:01:26.460 | and spend time listening to them during the day
00:01:28.740 | or looking for ideas.
00:01:30.500 | I stay as far away from it
00:01:33.340 | when I'm not directly engaging in it as possible.
00:01:37.860 | And in the best of situations,
00:01:40.900 | I have something else to totally engage myself in,
00:01:44.260 | in between.
00:01:45.080 | So instead of working on project A for five hours
00:01:49.100 | and then leaving and doing nothing,
00:01:51.380 | I'm hoping to engage in a project B or B, C and D
00:01:56.020 | with all of myself before going back to project A again,
00:01:59.700 | which might be the next day, let's say.
00:02:01.900 | - So this relates to an amazing chapter
00:02:05.900 | and series of writings of your book
00:02:07.140 | that I'm not going to describe
00:02:08.180 | because I want people to find it for themselves
00:02:10.260 | about disengaging, about disengaging from the process.
00:02:13.660 | One question I had as I read that chapter
00:02:15.700 | and as you're saying this now is,
00:02:17.620 | even though you're disengaged,
00:02:19.900 | do you believe that your subconscious is working it through?
00:02:23.140 | - I believe so, I believe so.
00:02:25.060 | And I think in general to stew over a problem
00:02:29.660 | is not the way to solve a problem.
00:02:31.900 | Think to hold the problems lightly.
00:02:36.300 | And when I say a problem,
00:02:38.820 | you know, when we're starting a project,
00:02:41.260 | there's usually this feeling of,
00:02:43.120 | there's a question mark at the beginning of every project.
00:02:47.940 | I'm always anxious when I start a new project
00:02:51.340 | because I have no idea what's going to happen.
00:02:53.420 | I never know.
00:02:54.420 | I never, I never, I may have in some cases
00:02:59.140 | a potential backup plan if, you know, if nothing works.
00:03:05.140 | But I really try not even to have that.
00:03:09.660 | I prefer not to have that.
00:03:11.480 | I prefer to go in, maybe to calm myself down
00:03:14.500 | enough to be able to show up.
00:03:16.300 | There'll be an idea of like, nothing works.
00:03:19.940 | Maybe we could try something like this.
00:03:22.780 | But that would only be for my own anxiety.
00:03:25.100 | That would, it wouldn't be for actual practical use.
00:03:28.340 | But there's always a sense of anxiety
00:03:30.940 | because I know whatever's going to happen
00:03:34.020 | is completely out of my control.
00:03:35.660 | Something's going to,
00:03:38.660 | something either interesting or not will appear.
00:03:42.360 | And then we're going to follow that wherever it goes.
00:03:45.140 | And until something appears for us to follow
00:03:52.020 | I have a lot of anxiety, even though it has never not come,
00:03:56.020 | you know, it has come every time,
00:03:57.380 | but there's something about it.
00:03:58.980 | 'Cause I also feel like there might be expectation on me
00:04:02.140 | that I'm going to make it happen.
00:04:04.260 | And I know that's not happening.
00:04:05.660 | That's not how it works.
00:04:07.020 | It's, it's, I show up ready for it to happen
00:04:16.260 | and I'm open to whatever we have to do
00:04:21.260 | to find that first thread.
00:04:25.260 | And once we find the thread, then it's like,
00:04:27.420 | okay, we have a, and that thread may lead us to anything,
00:04:30.980 | you know, could lead us to
00:04:31.820 | in a million different directions,
00:04:34.100 | but something about having that glimmer
00:04:37.220 | that it's not a blank, we're not looking at a blank page.
00:04:40.260 | You know, we're looking at, okay, we have a,
00:04:44.780 | we have the beginnings of, I would say a map,
00:04:49.780 | but it's a map that we don't know where it takes us.
00:04:53.540 | And it's just the beginning.
00:04:54.820 | It's just like, it's just to start, you know,
00:04:58.380 | you are here.
00:04:59.700 | If you have a map and it says you are here,
00:05:02.500 | even if you can't see the directions,
00:05:05.540 | knowing where we are feels okay.
00:05:07.540 | And once we get, and usually, again,
00:05:13.300 | usually in the first day, first couple of days, it happens.
00:05:17.940 | But up until then,
00:05:21.940 | it's really an anxiety producing situation.
00:05:27.260 | (upbeat music)
00:05:29.840 | (upbeat music)
00:05:32.420 | (upbeat music)