When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog-gapingvoid.com-and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures.

MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person?Ignore Everybody expands on MacLeod's sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. For example:-Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less.-If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.-Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.-The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.After learning MacLeod's forty keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.

休·麦克劳德（Hugh MacLeod）是一位生活在基督教青年会（YMCA）的年轻文案写手，他在酒吧里开始在名片背面涂鸦。这些漫画最终导致了一个流行的博客——gapingvoid.com——并以精辟的洞察力和幽默著称，无论是文字还是图片。
麦克劳德对从市场营销到生活意义的各个方面都有自己的见解，但他的主要主题之一是创造力。在一个愤世嫉俗、厌恶风险的世界里，新思想是如何产生的？灵感来自哪里？作为一个有创造力的人，需要什么来谋生呢？忽略所有人都会详细介绍麦克劳德最敏锐的洞察力、最诙谐的漫画和最有用的建议。例如：-卖完比看起来更难。稀释你的产品使其更具商业性只会让人们更不喜欢它。-如果你的计划依赖于你突然被某个大人物“发现”，你的计划可能会失败。没有人会突然发现什么。事情是缓慢而痛苦的-不要试图从人群中脱颖而出；完全避开人群。没有必要像其他25万名年轻候选人那样去做同样的事情，等待奇迹的出现。所有现有的商业模式都是错误的。找一个新的-想法不一定很大。它必须是你的。你对自己的作品拥有的主权将激励比实际内容多得多的人。在学习了麦克劳德的《创造力的四十把钥匙》之后，你将准备释放自己的才华，并将其释放到世界上。