Are You A Craftsman Or An Artist?

Photo by Nicolas Hoizey on Unsplash

Are you a Craftsman or an Artist?

Rick Rubin posed this question on a podcast recently and it made me perk up and take notice. We tend to conflate the two terms but Rubin suggests there’s a difference. 

A craftsman builds things, to a high level of quality. The craftsman does this consistently and often to a spec. He or she listens to you and what you need and then delivers, time after time after time. 

The artist, on the other hand, creates. The artist conceives of new ideas and new ways of doing things. The artist takes risks.

It may well be in the same discipline but the implications can be wildly different. You know what you’ll get with the former and it will always be great and to your expectations. 

With the latter, there is, for lack of a better term, the element of surprise. The idea that, while you don’t know what you will get, it could well be unlike anything you’ve seen before. 

To be clear, this isn’t to suggest that one is better than the other. That isn’t the case - it just depends on what you want. As such, there is a place for both.

But it’s worth knowing which one we are and, as important, which one we want to be.