#261 | Why Did Benjamin Franklin Sit Naked Outside? The Surprising ‘Daily Rituals’ and Habits of History’s Most Famous Artists, Scientists, and Thinkers
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti explores Mason Currey’s “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work”. He discusses Currey’s background, the book’s structure—161 short profiles of creative routines—and its diverse cast of famous artists, writers, and thinkers. Vigliotti highlights the importance of ritual for creatives, the individuality of creative processes, and his fascination with artists’ lives—making this episode a thoughtful guide to creativity and productivity habits.
Listen to the episode:
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TOPICS COVERED IN the EPISODE:
Introduction and Newsletter Reminder (00:09) - Douglas introduces the podcast, the book "Daily Rituals," and mentions the companion newsletter.
About Mason Currey and His Works (01:15) - Overview of Mason Currey, his books, and his Substack; brief personal thoughts on the author.
Book Overview: Daily Rituals (02:22) - Description of the book’s structure, content, and the types of creative people featured.
Examples of Creative Rituals (03:41) - Discussion of specific rituals and habits from the book, both common and unusual.
Famous Figures Featured (04:59) - List of notable artists, writers, and creatives included in the book.
Reason 1: Importance of Ritual (05:30) - Exploration of why rituals matter for creative work, with supporting quotes.
Reason 2: Embracing Uniqueness (07:29) - Emphasis on the diversity of creative processes and the value of individual approaches.
Reason 3: Fascination with the Creative Process (08:32) - Personal fascination with creative routines and the appeal of behind-the-scenes insights.
Closing Thoughts and Contact Info (09:48) - Encouragement to subscribe, contact details, mention of Douglas’s new book, and newsletter reminder.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to “Books for Men”, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week I have an interesting book to share with you. It is a non-fiction book. It falls into the biography category. I would say it is titled “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work” by Mason Currey. So it came out in 2013. It clocks in at around 275 pages or so, something of that nature. But I will share a lot more about the author, the book, and of course, some of my favorite quotes. Most importantly, why I love this book so much and why I think you will love this book so much. But before I do any of that, I did want to just quickly remind you about the companion newsletter that goes with this podcast. And that is just a once-a-month email that rounds up all of the episodes from that month, complete with full book and author information, episode summaries, all the best quotes, as well as additional book recommendations and some helpful links.
01:15 - So if that sounds like something you are interested in, you can sign up for it very easily by heading over to the website BooksforMen.org. On that note, let's turn back to the work at hand, and I want to start with the writer who is an author of two books, this one and a companion that came out, I think, 5 or 6 years later, titled “Daily Rituals: Women at Work”. So it's just an extension of the book that I am sharing with you today, with a more focus on women, of course. And he also writes a Substack titled “Subtle Maneuvers”, which is for artists, writers, and just creative people in general. I have never read the latter or the “Women at Work” book, but once I found out it existed, I did order it, so I do have it on the way. Honestly, I don't really know too much about this author other than that he's a writer/editor who started in the magazine business as an editor and then came up. Or to notoriety, I should say, in the indie blog movement of the mid-aughts with the blog titled “Daily Routines”.
02:22 - And this is how he came to writing or compiling, I should say, the book that I am sharing with you today, “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work”. So I guess it would be a good time to just pivot into the book itself. What is it? Well, in short, it's a book that features 161 short passages. Maybe they're a page or two in each one is on how a specific artist, writer or painter, playwrights or poets, philosophers, scientists on how all of these people got their work done on a daily basis. So basically, famous people who were great at what they did, this book shows their weird, idiosyncratic ways that they were able to create their most famous works. I shared a book that is sort of similar in episode 143 titled Page Fright, but that was more focused on just writers, whereas this is more widespread to creative people of all kinds. As you might imagine, it's a really fun read. You're basically reading all of these strange, self-medicating ways that famous people were able to do their work on a daily basis.
03:41 - There's the obvious, like loads of caffeine and walks and a good breakfast, or even techniques or productivity hacks like the need for specific working lengths of time each day, whether it was Freud who worked 16 hours a day or shorter. Like Gertrude Stein, who worked 30 minutes a day, but also the not-so-obvious habits. And I think those were the more entertaining and fun things to read. Of course, things like masturbation, drugs, headstands, or even Benjamin Franklin's famous air baths, which is basically just him sitting naked outside each morning, believing that it was healthy for him. But as I mentioned, the book features all types of famous creative people like Andy Warhol, William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, Leo Tolstoy who has been featured on this podcast, Pablo Picasso, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Georgia O'Keeffe who every time I read a Georgia O'Keeffe quote, I am always so taken by it for some reason, something about the way that she described the world is very appealing to me. But you'll also see Woody Allen in the book.
04:59 - Stephen King, Thomas Wolfe, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Hemingway, and Murakami, who were both repeat authors on this podcast, and I can go on and on with the list; it is literally endless. Many famous names that you have surely heard before. But as I mentioned at the top of this episode, I wanted to share with you the three reasons why I love this book so much. And the first one is just the importance of ritual. Obviously, the book is titled “Daily Rituals”, but to me it really shines a light on the importance of a ritual for someone who does creative work. It sort of dispels the romanticism of the actual work and shines a light on the work part of the work, which is really the whole thing. There are a couple of quotes that I love that sort of hinge on this that I pulled from the book. One of them is from Gustave Flaubert, and he says, “It's not easy business to be simple.” It kind of hinges on this idea that most people think simplicity is easy, when in fact it's the exact opposite for too many reasons to get into.
06:16 - In this episode, another that kind of builds off of this idea is by John Updike, and he writes, “A solid routine saves you from giving up.” And when I combine both of those quotes, simplicity is reproducible. And so to keep something simple allows you to reproduce it. And that's what a routine or a ritual does for you. And it keeps you going on and on and on and on. I think that this is something that's unseen, but definitely both of these great writers are talking about in strands of their thought there. And perhaps my favorite quote that talks about the importance of ritual and sort of dispels this romantic idea of the artist and the creative process comes from Chuck Close, and he writes, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” Needs no explanation, so I won't give it one. But I will share with you the second reason why I love this book, and that is it's a reminder of the many ways there are to create anything.
07:29 - So it's a reminder of peculiarity, weirdness, difference, uniqueness, all of it. And there is no one-size-fits-all all for anything. And it often comes down to what you need to do to be able to create the work that you want to create, and whatever you need to do. That's what you do. I once heard Harlan Coben talk about on a panel that his only writing process is whatever he needs to do each day to get words on a page. If that's sitting in a taxi, then I'll sit in a taxi. If it's sitting at his desk. He'll sit at his desk. Whatever he needs to do to get words on the page, that's the thing that he does. I thought that was an interesting way to look at it. But on that note of being different and unique, you could look at Toni Morrison, who was featured in this book, and she says, “I'm not able to write regularly. I have never been able to do that.” So it's a great example of how some writers may need to write daily, while others might not.
08:32 - And there are tons and tons of examples of that throughout this book. And the farther you dig into the lives of creative people. The last reason that I love this book is simply because I am extremely fascinated with the creative process. And what is more fun than going behind the scenes with great artists who have created works that you love? And that is something that you are going to do in this book, and it's why I think you should check it out. Just peeling back to that whole idea of why artists work. I think that it is important to remember this quote, which I'm going to close out the episode with, by the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, and he writes, “It's not work. It's my life. It's what I do. It's what I like to do.” All right, so I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, I want to remind you to please click subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on, because it is the best way for new listeners to find the show and, in turn, inspire more men to read.
09:48 - If you'd like to reach out to me, maybe tell me how I'm doing, what you thought about this episode, any of the above, all of the above. There are two ways that you can do so: on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have or via my website DouglasVigliotti.com. I did want to quickly remind you that I have a new book out, and it is titled “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”, and you can find out more information about that book on the website AristotleforNovelists.com. Last but not least, I wanted to thank you so much for tuning in. And if you want more information on this podcast specifically, like signing up for the newsletter that I mentioned at the top of this episode, then all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
