I've got to do something!

 From Rob Walker, Art of Noticing

 I can’t resist breaking form a bit, to share something I’ve been thinking about — a mini lesson on creating from George Harrison.

This comes by way of Tom Petty, who once shared the following little anecdote:

George Harrison and I were once in a car and the Beatles song “You Can’t Do That” came on, with that great riff in the beginning on the 12-string. He goes, “I came up with that.” And I said, “Really? How?” He said, “I was just standing there and thought, ‘I’ve got to do something!’ ”

Surely it can’t be that easy, or we’d all be in the Fab Four, right? And as Petty adds: “That was part of that Beatles magic — they all seemed to find the right thing to play.”

But, really, on some level, isn’t “I’ve got to do something” pretty much the entire story of creating, in basically any context? And doesn’t it so often seem that it’s the very hardest step to take? Is it remarkable to come up with something on the spot — or is that just how creating, large or small, inevitably happens? And wouldn’t it always be easier to just stand there?

The anecdote “pretty much sums [George] up,” Petty said. “He just had a way of getting right to the business.” There’s a lesson in that, or a reminder, whether you aspire to fab-ness or just personal satisfaction: Do something is the only way to get there.